this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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Privacy
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On one phone. The rest of are shit out of luck because we didn't buy the one phone from the company that is causing the problem in the first place.
They're working with an (unrevealed) major OEM to bring a compatible device to market sometime next year.
https://old.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/1o32gpg/blackberry_phones/nivsx0k/
Here's hoping its a device with an SD card slot and optionally a 3.5 jack. The Pixel's lack of those is the one reason I haven't made the switch.
You can always buy used!
Where does one find a used phone? I would have no idea.
More importantly, I don't want a used phone, OR to have to spend more money.
Ebay
Yuck. Nope. A used phone from a rando? No way in hell. Usb likely worn out, battery half the life of new... No.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266812035484
Not really a fan of Ebay. Getting a used slightly worn phone doesn't seem like a good idea. The usb C on every phone I have had (if it gets clean or not) starts to not work as well if at all, and the battery is certainly not going to work to 100 percent any more.
They're open nox
Then accept what they're doing
I dont really have a choice do I?
Also, this isn't just phones: I am using Fdroid on several TV devices too.
This really, really sucks.
Yes, you do. But you're making the wrong one
The choice being to drop F-Droid and drop Google products. Got it. I suppose I will have to.
Why non pixel?
Buy used. The other phone vendors haven't been offering the security hardware GOS needs, so far. It might change soon enough though.
This isn't awful advice, but used Pixel prices are vastly out of whack with used prices from just about any other android manufacturer. On Amazon I can currently buy a refurbished Galaxy S25+ for $300 less than a refurbished Pixel 9 Pro XL - when the Pixel is a worse phone by every metric but its ability to run GOS.
Also, in some markets (US I believe? I think its a company called Verizon that does this) Some pixels just cannot be OEM unlocked, at all. So that's also a risk buying used online at least - there's usually not a way to tell if you'd be getting one of those if you live in a market that has this fucked up "feature".
Change phones. You're rejecting solutions without offering one.
Dude, just fuck off. Your solution does not work for everyone. Pixel phones don't even have an SD slot ffs.
Get a USB-C memory stick for your phone. Stop acting like this stuff's impossible.
So it'll take 3 dongles just to bring my music collection with me? That's stupid. I'm not offering solutions because there are none. Phone manufacturers and Google have fucked us. My current phone is 8 years old because there are no good options that have The hardware I want. The only hope is the FOSS community and they decided to back one of the most useless phone models that is made by the biggest offender. Might as well buy an iPhone at this point for all the good it will do.
Ironically, with an iPhone you could at least buy into Test Flight privately-signed-apps.
Anyhow, it took me a couple days to realize the guy that you and I have both been replying to is just a troll. Thanks for explaining your thoughts through this discussion, and try not to be too demoralized by the guy.
We don't need 100 million songs on our phones. We can have 10 million songs. Privacy is more important than a stupidly large music collection.
You can't even buy a damn Pixel on Brazil, one of the countries set to receive the change first on Google's roadmap.
Being stuck on a single phone brand is never gonna be the solution.
You clearly have internet, so buy it from anywhere in the world. You’ve given zero solutions. It's like want us to give up. I’m not giving up on my privacy.
The solution is making noise. Talking to your local regulators, making them know this is an issue worth looking into.
The solution is pushing your government to do their fucking job and regulate these companies so they can't take blatant anti-costumer measures.
I'm not saying GrapheneOS isn't a solution, it absolutely is, what I'm saying is that it isn't the be-all and end-all, nor is it available for everybody, and coming into the comments to say "just buy a pixel duh" is smug as shit, and also missing the forest for the trees.
The solution is stopping Google from rolling out this change so everybody can enjoy the increased privacy sideloaded, FOSS apps bring, not just Graphene users.
Hell, Graphene themselves are suffering from Google's fuckery in relation to security patches and AOSP. (Image, Original Link)
Getting Google in a big antitrust lawsuit so they'll stop being actively hostile to projects built on top of Android would be very beneficial to Graphene, don't you think?
Wanna talk demoralizing? How about hearing "just buy a pixel and install GOS" on every thread on this topic completely ignoring whole countries where this isn't exactly feasible?
And when you try to point that out you get the most dismissive answer ever completely ignoring import taxes and a zillion other factors that make even used Pixels cost more than brand new phones that are head and shoulders above them specs wise?
Demoralizing you? Be so for real dude. You really think I'm part of a psyop trying to make you give up your OS? Rest easy, I won't reach thru the screen and snatch your phone.
Just know Graphene needs no negative marketing. If every user walks around talking like this about the project they'll have plenty already.
Thanks for spelling out all of this. I was you to know the I read every word of it.
The guy we both were responding to managed to waste an hour of my own day with back-and-forth so I figured it was worth seeing how others had torn apart the nonsense, and while I knew the issues in a theory level you explaining Brazil's ecosystem was an excellent illustration I learn from.
Good luck out there. May we someday both learn to evade feeding the trolls.
It's nice to know that my multi-paragraph unhinged angry rants on Lemmy get read by other people sometimes lmao.
"There are dozens of us! DOZENS!"
Now you're giving a solution. Led with that.
Bruh. Read the room. You have been taking swings at everyone in these threads and basically telling anyone that can't beg, borrow or steal a Pixel to fuck off.
Nobody should take you seriously when you talk about discouragement. I asked how you and I could encourage our community today and you told me not to worry about folks in the developing world that can't "work a few extra hours" for a mythical premium handset.
This was your smartest reply today.
Wrong, only if you're rejecting solutions without offering one.
Wrong again, we should take the blatant solutions available to us, before preaching to other countries.
https://lemmy.world/comment/20134562
Uh huh. And the devices that are not phones?
And saying just change your phone, much easier said than done isn't it?
My actions.... Piss off.
Computers don't need Android.
For fucks sake: my tablet, my android tv, a firestick....
Computers can output to televisions and a tablet computer is a type of computer. You’ve given zero solutions. It's like want us to give up. I’m not giving up on my privacy.
That makes no sense.....
I am not trying to demoralize anyone, this situation just sucks.
Yeah, no, don't take it personally. He's just been attacking anyone in the threads that doesn't buy into his prescribed "solution" while trying to also be some kind of victim-martyr.
Thanks for being here. Community needs vice and we will have to find a way, together, to back the creators that can actually code the paths forward.