23h ago

Switching from iOS to GrapheneOS, thoughts after 2 weeks

Apologies if this doesn't quite fit in this community but its a follow up to my last post here: https://lemm.ee/post/56710241

After my last post I purchased a Pixel 8a which I have been using as my main phone for the last 2 weeks. I haven't yet decided if I will be permanantly switching but these are my thoughts so far. I will probably give it a couple more weeks before I make a decision.

The migration process itself:

It took me a few days before I could actually start using the pixel as my main phone, a large part of this delay was moving my photos from iCloud photos to Immich. So far Immich is fine, its not perfect and I have a few complaints, but now that I've got it set up it seems to work fairly seamlessly. However transferring the photos onto the new phone was a pain. I wanted them synced on the device rather than just on the server as I want to be able to view them when I'm away from home and I have no interest in setting up remote access to my server at this time, however there is no sync or mass download option in the Immich app. Thankfully it seems its clever enough that if you transfer the photos to the phone another way it works out they're the ones already in your library and correctly marks them as on your device in the app. I used KDE connect top transfer the photos over but the issue with doing it that way is that as far as all apps other than Immich are concerned all the photos were modified on the same day so they're no longer in date order. I transferred them a year at a time so they are somewhat grouped but its not perfect and a proper sync option would have solved everything. The app in general is also a bit laggy when scrolling. It probably sounds like I'm bashing on it a bit hard but overall I do quite like it and it definitely seems better than any of the alternatives, and its nice to not be reliant on a cloud provider. It was also incredibly easy to set up on the server side, especially since it was the first time I've ever used docker for anything. I think I will be sticking with Immich even if I go back to iOS.

Whatsapp is a pain in the arse, since I'm still not sure if I'll be sticking with the pixel yet I didn't actually transferred the data from my iPhone, instead I'm just using it as a linked device. However I've since discovered that the only way to transfer from an iPhone to Android is to do it during the initial phone setup process when it prompts you if you want to transfer any data from another device. I'm hoping I can get away with not resetting my phone by borrowing a phone from work and using the Samsung smart switch app, then back it up to my google account and sync that on the new phone, but I don't know why they make it so difficult.

Contacts and calendar were fairly easy to transfer, Apple make it surprisingly easy to export the data to a file from iCloud and then I could just import those into the respective apps on the pixel

I haven't transferred my whole music library as I mainly use Spotify, I just moved a few songs that aren't available on there. However it was incredibly easy to move them over with KDE connect. I did have an issue with some of them not showing the correct album artwork or artist, I'm not sure if that was an issue with GrapheneOS, Android in general or the Fossify music player however I was fairly easily able to fix that with an MP3 tagger.

I did need to install sandboxed Google play services for my banking app to work, I believe its also required for reliable notifications (at least for stuff like whatsapp). Because of this I've chosen to use the Google Play store to install most apps as that still seems to be the best option in terms of security, and it doesn't seem like I'm giving up much in terms of privacy since I already have to have Google play services installed anyway. However I'm trying to mostly use foss apps where possible so that if by some miracle I do manage to escape Google play services I can still mostly use the same apps. For the couple of apps not available on the Google play store I've used Obtainium with the respective project github pages as the source, and I've found that incredibly easy to use.

2fa was a bit of a pain, I use Microsoft authenticator on iOS as that allows cloud backups, however that backup was tied to my iCloud account so I couldn't actually restore it on my Pixel. As a result I just had to log in to each service and manually change the 2fa setup. If I stick with the Pixel I'm thinking of moving to Aegis authenticator as apparently that allows backing up to a file instead.

Notes was also a bit of a pain as there didn't seem to be a way to export these from iCloud or iOS. In the end I just had to copy and paste the text itself, thankfully I didn't have too many (and it was an excuse to tidy up old ones). I'm currently using Fossify notes which isn't quite as nice as the iOS notes app but it does the job.

The good:

More freedom, being able to install apps like Newpipe, and easily customise the OS with custom notification sounds etc.

Having a universal back gesture is great, technically iOS has something similar but only on the left edge of the screen which I find difficult to reach.

KDE connect, I already used this on iPhone as an easy way to transfer stuff to my PC, but its so much more functional on Android it feels like a completely different app. Especially on Linux where I can just browse the filesystem via Dolphin so long as both devices are on the same network.

Actual file management, I never really understood why people cared about that especially since iOS does have a files app, but yeah after trying it I can conclude its far superior to the way iOS just obfuscates all the storage.

The ability to transfer local music without fucking iTunes

Much easier to not use Google's cloud storage for photos etc than it is to avoid iCloud on iOS. Yeah sure you're not technically forced to use iCloud but trying to use anything else feels a bit janky in comparison

Cost, I managed to get a sealed Pixel 8a from ebay for £260 which seemed like a very good price. I still have my iPhone at the moment but looking at the current Ebay prices if I decide to stick with the pixel I may even be able to sell it at and make a slight "profit"!

I really like how there is absolutely no bloatware. It was also nice not to have to go through the settings app to disable a bunch of AI bullshit or telemetry crap.

The bad:

Battery life, how does Android get so little battery life out of such a big battery? Its not awful but I get less battery on my brand new Pixel than I currently do on my 3 year old iPhone despite the fact the battery is supposed to be ~1400mAh bigger. And according to the settings app my iPhone only has 83% of its original capacity left. Its still easily enough to make it through a day, but I'm nowhere near the 2 day battery life I got out of my iPhone when it was new. I have no idea if it would be better or worse on stock Android but it seems unlikely that its a GrapheneOS specific issue.

Notifications, I've heard people complain about the way iOS does notifications and that Android is much better but after trying both I can honestly say I much prefer the iOS method

I've also had an issue playing music in my car. My car doesn't have bluetooth so I use a lighhtning or USB-C to aux adapter, and it keeps disconnecting from the phone while I'm driving. Not physically falling out of the port, but the music stops and when I pull over and start it again it comes out of the phone speakers rather than the car speakers. I'm hoping its just the cheap crappy USB-C adapter I bought, I've purchased another one which I haven't had a chance to try yet. I'm pretty sure its not a software issue as its only done it in the car, I'm assuming the vibration is enough to shake it loose, but if its an issue with the phones port I will definitely be switching back as thats not something I can live with.

I really miss FaceID, I set that up once when I got my iPhone and again when they introduced face mask compatibility and then never had to touch it again, it recognised me nearly every time without fail. I have already had to re-register the fingerprint sensor many times in just the last couple of weeks as it keeps not recognising my fingers, and this isn't the fault of the pixels implementation as I used to have the same issue with the TouchID iPhones. It also just doesn't work at all for about 15 minutes after I get out of the shower, it seems like even the tiniest amount of moisture causes it to fail. I also miss how all notification content was hidden until I looked at the phone, having to manually reveal them with my fingerprint feels a bity more clunky

I kind of miss Apple pay, but this one is fairly minor as I almost always have my physical card on my anyway. It was also quite nice for online payments but again its not exactly difficult to use a different method

Slightly annoying to lose iMessage, I barely used it but my immediate family were slighly annoyed that there messages were now going through as standard texts

In general I've found widgets to be uglier and less useful than on iOS, I don't use them a whole bunch anyway and some of this is probably partly down to the specific apps I'm using, but considering Android has had widgets for far longer I was expecting much better

Auto-brightness doesn't seem as good as on iOS, I've had to adjust it manually a few times whereas I basically never had to change the brightness manually on iOS

Typing doesn't feel as good as on iOS, I find myself making a lot more mistakes. I didn't like the stock keyboard at all so I've been using the FUTO keyboard. Perhaps the FUTO keyboard is part of the problem but I think its more likely to be an Android thing as I've noticed similar when using other Android devices in the past.

The neutral:

90% of Android feels the same as iOS now, both of them have become more and more similar over the years so you can pretty quickly adjust from one to the other

Every app I needed/wanted has either worked or had an equivalent. The main one I was concerned about not working was my banking app. We'll have to see how things play out with the play integrity bullshit (this has me mildly concerned: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/18184-whatsapp-you-need-the-official-whatsapp-to-log-in/22) but as of right now I can do everything I need.

Vanadium vs Safari is a bit of a trade off, Vanadium seems much better in terms of the ad-blocking capabilty, and I'm assuming its better in terms of privacy. However I think Safari has a much bettter UI/UX than Chrome on Android (even the Chrome app on iOS feels better than Chrome on Android to me, I expected the Android version to be the same). I also miss reader mode, not sure if there is an extension that can replicate that?

The Pixel hardware seems quite nice, especially since I paid almost 1/4 of what I paid for my iPhone. Sure its not quite as nice in some places such as having a plastic shell instead of metal/glass, but it still feels premium rather than being the cheap nasty kind of plastic. I always use a case anyway so its not like you can even see most of it. I don't think the screen is quite as nice but its still 120Hz and again for the price I paid I'm not bothered. It certainly not terrible. I haven't used the camera enough to see how that compares either, but I'm not a massive camera user anyway so I'm not overly bothered if its a bit worse. I may also try the Google camera app and see if its any better than the stock GrapheneOS one.

Backing up with Seedvault is not perfect, every time I plug in the USB it fails after a few minutes and I have to manually trigger the backup again (which then runs without any issue the second time). I've tried a test restore and its fairly seamless for most stuff however since some apps don't allow backing up I then had to install them manually and reconfigure them. However I think this still beats iOS as the only viable options there are iCloud (which I'm trying to move away from) or iTunes (yuck).

Apps are a bit of a mixed bag. For some such as Mastodon the Android app feels better/smoother than the iOS app, others such as Immich don't feel as good as the iOS counterparts. Most of them feel pretty much the same on both platforms though, or I'm just using an alternative.

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55 comments

Thanks for the great writeup! Some of your Issues may be fixable, others stem from the fact that its sadly an alternative OS developed by a hand full of people compared to a multi billion dollar corp. But trying out new things and seeing true progression in development can be exciting too / make up for the inconveniences. In the long run this project can't stay dependant on google, since they make their money from data and not hardware, and one of GrapheneOSs main purposes is to remove that source of income i guess. Also google is known to kill their products out of nowhere. Anyways:
I don't know much about Immich myself but its a pretty young project, maybe the kinks will work out someday. In the meantime you could try Nextcloud. It has a specific Photos application and you can enable auto upload on your phone. You could also sync your contacts, calendar, notes (in markdown), etc. Would also sync to other devices and you would have kind of a backup. The Nextcloud Notes App is really good as well.
If you would want to ditch Spotify in the future (hardest of all subscription services to substitute imho) you could try jellyfin + finamp
You could also use the Aurora Store to get Apps from the Play Store API without enabling Google Play Services. For the apps that need it you could install those in a second user profile (which can be allowed to run in the background) with Google Play services and Play Store. Notifications work for most apps (I don't use whatsapp) but there is a permanent silent notification. This is needed so that android doesn't kill the app. You can disable those from appearing in the status bar.
If you use TOTP for 2FA you could try Keepass. There are several implementations. The classic one would be Keepass2Android. Another one with a more modern feel to it would be KeepassDX. You can also use it to store and autofill your passwords. It stores everything in a file which can be synced both ways, using e.g. Nextcloud
Battery life is rather a GrapheneOS Issue than an Android one. The reasons are additional encapsulation by using containerized apps, missing optimization since google pulls features from AOSP into apps you only get from the Play Store / with Play Services etc. But then again, I noticed that most of the battery (about 2/3) on my phones is used by mobile data / connection. If you have bad signal like me its harder for the phone to stay connected. On my testbench pixel 6a without a SIM card I got about 3-4 days with regular usage compared to 1-1.5 days on stock Pixel OS with a sim card installed (Google Play Services lives in another profile which is shut down when in background).
Fingerprint recognition is a hardware issue since the Pixels up to version 8 use optical scanners, from Pixel 9 on they use ultrasonic ones which are exceptionally good. The phone is unlocked before the screen even turns on. As others said, you could register the same finger several times. It's still usable, you just have to be careful to not leave a single grain of dust under screen protectors in the region of the fingerprint sensor though and rescan your fingerprints after installation.
I don't have USB connection issues, neither when playing music in the car over an adapter nor when transfering files. You could try disabling the USB security feature where the data pins are deactivated on hardware level when the phone is locked.
There has been a bug with auto brightness for about a month in the upstream Pixel OS that causes the screen to go completely dark sometimes, but other than that i have always found it pretty reliable.
Google Keyboard is really good (for which you can and should disable network access on app level) but FUTO Keyboard is great as well. I guess it's just your muscles being used to something else since i really can't type on the IOS keyboard ;)
Vanadium has a reader mode. Its just patched Chromium after all.
Google Camera App is a must imo. You can disable network access and it doesn't need Google Play Services to function (for now).
- Adding on some more notes/suggestions
  Open Camera is also a great camera alternative. You still can use all the fancy features like "night" mode, the UI is just a bit less straightforward.
  Heliboard is also an excellent keyboard choice, if you don't like FUTO's open but not FOSS model
  Another part of the battery issue might be the "new toy effect", its been a few weeks so may not be the case anymore, but when we get a new phone we spend hours and hours setting it up skewing our perception of the battery life. (I typically get 3 full days on Graphine on P9, with light to moderate use)
  If you don't like Vanadium, you can try Firefox(or a fork), it has extension support, which includes UBlock Origin. There are some good privacy reasons Graphine ships with a chromium browser that you can read on the website.
  For syncing data, Syncthing is an excellent choice. There is an IOS app fork, called Mobius Sync. Due to Apple restriction is doesn't run in the background, but just opening the app and letting it sync is a lot easier than manually doing stuff (I set a Shortcut script to open the app everyday when I'm typically using my ipad). Your also limited by Apple's "user" file system. On Android you can sync anything except the root folder, great for music, photos, docs, any exported app settings files, and keypass files if you go that route for passwords.
  F-Droid is a great source for open-source apps. I have hesitations on the Auroa store, read it can't verifiy apps like play store does so something could be inserted mid-tranaction. Likely hood is probably 0, but something to consider.
  You can replace the home screen launcher, the one Graphine ships with is pretty basic. Lawnchair is a very popular one. I use one called Neo Launcher (from F-droid, not the play store one with same name). There are a ton of different takes on what a launcher can be, from a super minimalist text list of your apps and some with some insane customization options.
  Widgets are definitely app-based for what you get. Apple has a more cohesive design across them that app devs tend to (have to?) follow, while android is just a free for all.
- Yeah Immich is good enough at the moment, as you said it's a small team and it's completely free. I'm also planning on checking out Nextcloud as a replacement for general cloud storage soon. I've heard mixed things about the aurora store, especially since the no account feature just seems to rely on a bunch of anonymous gmail accounts they made and from what I've seen they randomly get blocked. If I was to completely avoid Google play services I'd probably use obtainium or f-droid, but as I need Google play services anyway it doesn't seem like I'm compromising much by using the Google play store as well.
  Interesting to hear the battery life is a GrapheneOS specific issue, I guess that's a compromise I can deal with as it's still enough to get me through the day! And yes I think you're right about me just being used fo the iOS keyboard, I'm sure I'll get used to this one soon.
  I've found the chromium reader mode now, I didn't expect it to be under accessibility settings!
  
  You might wanna look into Tailscale for connecting to services like Immich while outside your network. It's incredibly painless to setup and has replaced all other VPN solutions for me (especially with their Mullvad integration).
  
  Yes Tailscale or perhaps just a direct Wireguard VPN is something I want to look into at some point. I want to get everything else on my server set up first before I worry about external access though (I'm also slightly paranoid about exposing anything to outside connections even if it is as safe as Tailscale)
  
  The way to think about it is that by using tailscale you're not exposing your service to the outside: your service remains exposed only to your internal network and you get into your internal network through tailscale. However don't take my word for it, definitely do your research and proceed with a solution that you're comfortable enough with in terms of security. Nothing wrong with going slowly and verifying/understanding each of the steps along the way.
- I switched to iOS recently, and yes android can do everything better, the issue is iOS just works and as you get older that day or week of tweaking your phone is just not worth it, at least not for me since I barely use my phone for anything other than pooping distraction.

55 comments