GrapheneOS (formerly Android Hardening or AndroidHardening) is an Android-based, open source, privacy and security-focused

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on ...

for selected

Google Pixel Google Pixel is a brand of consumer electronic devices developed by Google that run either ChromeOS or the Android operating system. The Pixel brand was introduced in February 2013 with the first-generation Chromebook Pixel. The Pixel line inc ...

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History

The main

developer Developer may refer to: Computers * Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web d ...

, Daniel Micay, originally worked on

CopperheadOS CopperheadOS is a mobile operating system for smartphones, based on the Android mobile platform. It adds privacy and security features to the official releases of the Android Open Source Project by Google. CopperheadOS is developed by Copperhead ...

, until a schism over software licensing between the co-founders of Copperhead Limited led to Micay's dismissal from the company in 2018. After the incident, Micay continued working on the Android Hardening project, which was renamed as GrapheneOS and announced in April 2019. According to Damien Wilde of 9to5Google, sourced to GrapheneOS Twitter, in March 2022, GrapheneOS released Android 12L for Pixels before Google did, second to ProtonAOSP. According to Skanda Hazarika of XDA Developers, sourced to GrapheneOS Twitter, GrapheneOS apps "Secure Camera" and "Secure PDF Viewer" (based on

pdf.js PDF.js is a JavaScript library that renders Portable Document Format (PDF) files using the web standards-compliant HTML5 Canvas. The project is led by the Mozilla Corporation after Andreas Gal launched it (initially as an experiment) in 2011 ...

) were released to the Google Play Store and

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...

Features

As of March 2022, GrapheneOS only officially supports

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devices. By default

Google apps Google Workspace (formerly known as Google Apps and later G Suite) is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It consists of Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Meet ...

are not installed with GrapheneOS, but users can install a sandboxed version of

Google Services The following is a list of products, services, and apps provided by Google. Active, soon-to-be discontinued, and discontinued products, services, tools, hardware, and other applications are broken out into designated sections. Web-based product ...

from the 'Apps' app, which is installed with GrapheneOS. The sandboxed Google services should allow access to the Google Play Store and apps dependent on Google Services, along with features including push notifications and in-app payments. GrapheneOS has developed a hardened Chromium-based web browser and WebView implementation known as Vanadium, and a hardened low-level kernel memory allocator known as "hardened_malloc". GrapheneOS introduces revocable network access and sensors permission toggles for each installed app, GrapheneOS also randomizes

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per-connection by default. and includes a PIN scrambling option for the

lock screen A lock screen is a computer user interface element used by various operating systems. They regulate immediate access to a device by requiring the user to perform a certain action in order to receive access, such as entering a password, using a cert ...

, a hardware-based attestation app known as Auditor is also included.

Reception

In 2019, Georg Pichler of ''

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'', and other news sources, quoted Edward Snowden saying on Twitter, "If I were configuring a smartphone today, I'd use Daniel Micay's GrapheneOS as the base operating system." In discussing why services should not force users to install proprietary apps, Lennart Mühlenmeier of netzpolitik.org suggested GrapheneOS as an alternative to Apple or Google. ''Svět Mobilně'' and ''Webtekno'' repeated the suggestions that GrapheneOS is a good security- and privacy-oriented replacement for standard Android. In a detailed review of GrapheneOS for Golem.de, Moritz Tremmel and Sebastian Grüner said they were able to use GrapheneOS similarly to other Android, but enjoying more freedom from Google, without noticing differences from "additional memory protection, but that's the way it should be." They concluded GrapheneOS cannot change how "Android devices become garbage after three years at the latest", but "It can better secure the devices during their remaining life while protecting privacy." In June 2021, reviews of GrapheneOS,

KaiOS KaiOS is a mobile Linux distribution for keypad feature phones based on the Firefox OS open-source project. It is developed by KaiOS Technologies (Hong Kong) Limited; a company based in Hong Kong, whose largest shareholder is Chinese multina ...

, AliOS, and Tizen OS, were published in Cellular News. The review of GrapheneOS called it "arguably the best mobile operating system in terms of privacy and security," however, they criticized GrapheneOS for its inconvenience to users, saying "GrapheneOS is completely de-Googled and will stay that way forever—at least according to the developers." They also noticed a "slight performance decrease" and said "it might take two full seconds for an app—even if it’s just the Settings app—to fully load." In March 2022, writing for ''How-To Geek'' Joe Fedewa said, unlike standard versions of Android, Google apps were not included due to concerns over privacy, and GrapheneOS also did not include a default

app store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

. Instead, Fedewa suggested,

F-Droid F-Droid is an app store and software repository for Android, serving a similar function to the Google Play store. The main repository, hosted by the project, contains only free and open source apps. Applications can be browsed, downloaded and ...

could be used. In a review of GrapheneOS installed on a

Pixel 3 The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are a pair of Android smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as the successors to the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. They were officially an ...

, after a week of use, Jonathan Lamont of ''MobileSyrup'' opined GrapheneOS demonstrated Android's reliance on

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. He called GrapheneOS install process "straightforward" and concluded to like GrapheneOS overall, but criticized the post-install as "often not a seamless experience like using an unmodified Pixel or an iPhone", attributing his experience to his "over-reliance on Google apps" and the absence of some "smart" features in GrapheneOS default keyboard and camera apps, in comparison to software from Google. In his initial impressions post a week prior, Lamont said after an easy install there were issues with permissions for Google's Messages app, and difficulty importing contacts; Lamont then concluded, "Anyone looking for a straightforward experience may want to avoid GrapheneOS or other privacy-oriented Android experiences since the privacy gains often come at the expense of convenience and ease of use." In July 2022, Charlie Osborne of ZDNet suggested that individuals who suspect a Pegasus infection use a secondary device with GrapheneOS for secure communication.

References

Notes

External links