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2 monthsI switched to GrapheneOS about a year ago. It was a conscious choice and I also wanted to use my phone as a phone. I installed the absolute minimal apps needed to function when out and about. I refuse to use things like Messenger and WhatsApp (I redirect friends and fam to Signal). I also experienced a decrease in phone usage which has been really nice. I feel like I’ve definitely kicked the doomscrolling habit as I don’t feel inclined to pick up my phone all the time and the only time I use Lemmy (Voyager app is the only social media app on my phone) is when I’m in a waiting room.
I really love the freedom that my phone is (mostly) just a phone and I’m not constantly online and constantly available. There’s just this weight lifted of not being constantly aware or hypervigilant about my phone.
If I ever couldn’t use Graphene anymore for whatever reason, I would just go back to using a dumb phone and prepare ahead more.
- 2 months
I am confused about why it made you use your phone less. Is it that you didn’t install your time sink apps?
I use GrapheneOS and nothing really changed day to day. Admittedly I have sandboxed Google Play Services installed so I can use my banking app and some others only on the Play store, but largely it’s just a phone like before but without so much Google.
- 2 months
I thought it might be that. I just didn’t want anyone to get the impression you use your phone less because it can’t do as much! I still use mine too much 😅
- 2 months
Oh I was already degoogling long before I moved to GrapheneOS. I’ve never used RCS and gave up wallet years before moving to GrapheneOS. I only use SMS with specific people so not having RCS has never been an issue for me - but apparently it works on GrapheneOS if you don’t mind the whole google thing.
And apparently it’s only NFC payments that don’t work on GrapheneOS, you can use other wallet features according to the people in this thread.
I never stopped carrying a card anyway so NFC payments aren’t something I miss.
Most of my messaging is to family, and they are all on signal, but outside of family RCS of better than SMS.
I am not degoogled but I’m pretty careful. Google apps are only in chrome and that’s all that browser is used for. Ironfox is my main browser. I removed the advertiser Id on Android.
But the majority of my apps are open source and I’m concerned about where Google ID going with side loading. This will be what forces my hand.
I hope I can get my Dexcom working on gos.
- 2 months
RCS might be better than SMS but it seems to only be supported by the Google Messages app so I do without. You did ask about other things, I don’t recall giving anything up but then there are these two things you mentioned that I never would have thought of so maybe there are more.
I hope I can get my Dexcom working on gos.
It’s apparently a struggle, but see this thread. I can’t work out how to link a specific reply, but there is one on 11 August 2025 by whoiswes and then some info in the replies following it, that recommend something called xDrip. They say they recommend it over the Dexcom app and runs flawlessly once set up, but it seems there’s a bit of app crashing that happens while setting it up.
Not encouraging to hear about crashes. I do use xDrip already. But my setup uses both xDrip and the Dexcom app.
I’m willing to change a lot to keep Foss.
- 2 months
From the thread it seems it’s only a problem during setup. If you stick it out then after setup it should be fine.
- 2 months
I like GOS too. And its this community that inspired me to make the change for some months ago, and now family is going the same way. Sadly I can’t use my pay method, in a profile with Google play service eneabled, I only can get it to work, once just after installing it. Maybe because I downloaded it fro Auora store. I’ve never been a fan of bank apps on phone, but this app is for sending money.
I’m really happy for GOS, and its somehow funny that I feel more privacy protected, but can’t see how it’s protecting me. Maybe its all under the hood 😀
- 2 months
GOS is quite cool! I do miss some features of the first party pixel OS, but certainly not enough to go back. Most of my gripes have to do with other apps’ dependence on Google services rather than GOS itself.
After working out the kinks of getting all my apps set up and working (my mobile carrier being the hardest since they require their stupid app) it’s been quite seamless.
Some stuff still needs work, for example I found that work profiles are really janky (since the work profile apps expect Google Play Services in the work sandbox, and get really confused when it isn’t there).
I use sandboxed Play Services with the minimum permissions to make it work, mainly because most apps just crap out or have no notifications without it, which is annoying.
- 2 months
I have noticed a weird bug with screenshots - it pops up the mini version of your screenshot in the corner, but if I don’t use the back gesture fast enough it will become stuck on screen until I take another screenshot (even if I tap on it to open the editing view).
- 2 months
Hmm, that hasn’t happened to me before, or if it did, it was a one time thing so I didn’t remember it. I just did a screenshot and it took about 6 seconds to go away. I did another and made sure to interact with it, and it stayed up a littlw longer before also disappearing.
- 2 months
Oh, interesting.
Testing today it appears that isn’t happening any more for me either - I guess I’ve been doing my silly workaround for months for no reason!
And all it took was complaining about a bug on the internet to realize that it’s already been fixed (or stopped happening for some other reason) and I just never realized.
Slightly funny, even if it makes me look like a fool!
- eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish2 months
Slightly funny, even if it makes me look like a fool!
i assume that i’m a fool because i’ve learned that hardway that there’s always plenty i don’t know.
- 2 months
It looks like I just didn’t wait long enough. It does change behavior under the following edge case which is what threw me off - if you take a screenshot, click Edit, then switch apps, it stays on screen and doesn’t respond to the back gesture, you have to wait out its timer.
I figure it should go away when you go to edit (since you can now see the screenshot fullscreen and no longer need a preview)
Throughout my daily use, I noticed something peculiar. I was using my phone less and less.
You’re not the first person I’ve heard say this after installing graphene OS. Why do you think this is? Is it just because you don’t have social media apps installed?
- 2 months
GOS didn’t make me use my phone less, but deleting traditional social media certainly did. After I deleted most algorithm social media like Instagram and Reddit (YT amd Tumblr haunt me still) or turned off the history on YT (no history = no recommendations), I stopped using my phone as much. Lemmy and Tumblr do make me do that awful “pick phone up, look at app for 10 secs, put it down, then pick it up again 2 mins later” habit, but the fact that I can even notice that in myself is a win imo.
But when I check my usage/screen time, I tend to fluctuate. Voyager (Lemmy/Piefed) will get around an hour of doom scrolling (or tech scrolling) from me, while Tumblr gets about 45 - 60 mins out of me each day (fanart is a hell of a drug). So unfortunately 2 hours of social media from me seems to be my average. I could certainly go lower, and I want to, but I’m grateful that it’s already limited to that. I hear about people scrolling social media for literally 8+ hours, so I’m certainly not the worst of the bunch.
But since GOS is very minimalized and has encouraged me to adopt as much FOSS as possible, that helps too.
Interesting. It would also make sense that going full FOSS might lead to less social media use indirectly, since most social media apps would require micro-G
- 2 months
This was actually extremely helpful, thanks for sharing. What device are you using? Is the camera app as good as Google’s? Also I’m curious if you were able to get tap to pay working.
- 2 months
Great! I appreciate the response. There is an app called Zerocam that removes a ton of the algorithmic processing and the results look great, but they have a subscription model now 🤮 I would love a FOSS replacement.
- 2 months
I like the post, and have experienced similarly after moving to GOS. What I also like is I could put some apps that I still need (but dont really like) just in case in a Private Space (eg Whatsapp, or banking), this way is always closed and just check it once a day, with a specific purpose. No notifications from there whatsover. Most people (the important ones anyway) know they can reach out immediately if needed via Signal.
