One of the things that keeps cropping up whenever I make an Android or Apple post, CONSTANTLY, is someone commenting that they wouldn’t give their data to Google, because of concerns about what they’ll do with it.
Exactly the same comments are said about Apple.
So I started looking into which is better for privacy, and it led me here.
Today I'm reviewing the Google Pixel 9a. Which, after my research, runs one of the most secure, and privacy focused operating systems of all.
It’s not an iPhone. But it’s also, not a Pixel either… Because this isn’t running PixelOS.
Much like Pixel have their flavour of Android, Samsung have OneUI, Nothing have their own.
This Pixel is running GrapheneOS, which is another flavour of Android that strips away absolutely everything to make this phone the cleanest Android install that I have ever seen. And I’ve been using it for the past week just to get a feel for how well GrapheneOS works day to day.
Does it restrict things TOO much and make the phone unusable, or is it legitimately something you can use daily whilst staying a little more secure?
What is GrapheneOS?
With Graphene, gone are all of the Google Services, all of the trackers and sometimes ads that come baked into many phones. It’s totally open source.
It has more granular controls over which apps can access the cameras, contacts, and network access. You still get the Play Store, so you can still download whichever apps you want to use, which means you COULD go straight back to Gmail and Google Calendar and whatever browser you wish. But there are alternative options too.
You can also opt to use something else like F-Droid which is an app store full of free and open source tools to replace most of the apps you previously used. And theres the Aurora store which lets you anonymously download apps from the Play store. Which makes sense because if the first thing you do is install the Play store, it then forces you to sign into a Google Account, which kind of defeats the privacy object.
And whilst pretty much any app is inherently going to have its own security concerns, you can at least have control, via GrapheneOS on what is happening behind the scenes.
So those installing GrapheneOS on their phones, are ones who REALLY want to keep anybody away from tracking and collecting data which we all know happens in some way shape or form no matter how careful we might be.
Graphene just gives us that extra layer of protection and control so we can decide if we want an app to have network access at all or not.
One of the first things you will run into with Graphene, is, a private Password Manager, not Google's built in one. I always recommend a standalone, secure, password manager.
There are surprisingly few password managers that have ZERO embedded trackers in their Android App. One of those that does have zero, is Keeper.
So one of the first things I did when I started using this phone , was to install Keeper, so that I could re-sign back in to whichever apps or services I wanted to use.
Keeper works cross-platform, and can be used to securely share data with your family, colleagues, and even friends. It’s all well and good using the built-in password managers for Apple Keychain, or Google Chrome, Samsung Pass, and however much data they are or aren't collecting - they are still not cross-platform.
So there’s going to be an inevitable time where you will want to access your passwords, maybe from your desktop or laptop, and maybe you don’t even have your phone to hand.
Or maybe you just want to share a password. Will it be via WhatsApp, or Slack, or maybe the old school Sticky Note method?
How to Install GrapheneOS
Installing GrapheneOS is actually WAY simpler than I first thought. You hold down the Power Up button whilst restarting your phone, then connect it to your computer, head over to the GrapheneOS website and literally at the click of a few buttons, your phone will be wiped and installed with a fresh install of GrapheneOS.
All in all it took around 15 minutes.
Installing Apps
Once installed, it’s a simple case of downloading and installing all of those essential apps.
And if you are really going for Privacy, maybe you’d consider using apps like, Proton instead of the Google Apps. Proton Mail, Proton Drive or other alternative apps.
But, if you want to just use the Google Apps, which, kind of undoes a lot of the whole reason for going to GrapheneOS, then you can just download those as well.
So this isn’t to say that you SHOULD or SHOULDN’T use the Google Apps vs other more privacy focused apps. It’s all going to come down to a personal choice.
How Usable is GrapheneOS?
Cameras
One of the reasons many people pick up a Pixel, is for the incredible cameras on them. I admit that the stock camera is pretty bad, because you’re not getting all of that incredible post processing that the Pixels do, to make those photos look as good as they do.
But this again, comes down to a choice. Because you can simply install the Google Camera app back onto the phone, to get the camera back to what it is, a great camera.
If you’re a purist and want to keep google AWAY from your device, then of course you can either use the stock camera app, or find an alternative.
Banking Apps
Another issue that I didn’t personally run into, but I had to check before I installed Graphene, was my banking apps.
I heard others say that their banking apps wouldn’t work, something to do with the additional security that they need which doesn’t work with Graphene.
But, luckily my banking apps are all compatible.
However there is a website that shows a list of which banking apps work and which ones won’t.
Wallet / Contactless?
One issue I did run into is that GrapheneOS does not work with Google Wallet. As someone who doesn’t carry a wallet with me all the time, that really sucks.
The only workaround for this which does fix that issue is to be wearing a smart watch, which you can then add your payment cards to. Or carry around a physical card or wallet again. Which I’d rather not.
Battery Life
There are many positives to GrapheneOS, aside from the whole security and privacy side of things, one of those is the battery life.
The Battery life SHOULD be far better than PixelOS, because there aren’t a tonne of background processes running and calling on various services, and sync’ing things and generally just always consuming battery life.
Obviously if you just re-download those apps, all of the syncing and stuff starts again, which means battery life will be similar to what you are currently getting.
I haven’t been running GrapheneOS long enough to know how much better or worse it is for prolonged use. But I have definitely noticed a huge improvement in battery life, and particularly standby time. When I first installed GrapheneOS I had to go away for a few days so when I came back to it I picked it up, expecting it to be dead, and it was still at something like, 95+% battery which was shocking.
I easily get 2 full days of battery life now from this phone.
Security Settings
There are features in GrapheneOS that can help extend it even further. You can head into the settings and see some great features that will switch off your WiFi when it’s not used for a certain period of time, or switch off your Bluetooth after so many minutes of bluetooth devices not being connected to it. You can even disable the USB C port on the phone when it’s not locked and charging, which, from a security perspective, is very nice to see.
Storage
Before I started using this phone, I wondered how much storage space Pixel OS takes up compared to GrapheneOS.
So on my second, identical Pixel 9a - I bought two of these phones, the general operating system and default apps combined are using 14Gb out of 128Gb.
On GrapheneOS, we are at - 15Gb. Which includes over half a gig for the Play store, and 300Mb for Keeper, before I started loading up the rest of my apps.
10GB of that space, is for Android 15. So, you don’t seem to win any storage space back by moving over to Graphene.
Profiles
There is also the ability to create multiple profiles on this phone. So if you did want to install a bunch of google apps, then you could create a profile just for those to keep all of the tracking apps in one sandboxed profile, and that also includes Android Auto by the way, so if you want to use Android Auto you’ll need to install that app onto a profile to use it.
This might be a good option for Social Media, a profile that has all of the Instagrams and TikToks and all that stuff that requests access to your contacts every time you open the app, you can lock that away in a separate profile.
Although I guess people using TikTok probably don’t care about privacy anyway, so there’s that.
Or perhaps you want to create a profile for all of your finance, banking and investment apps - which goes behind a separate pin protected profile.
What if you want to go back to PixelOS
If you go through all of the trouble to install GrapheneOS and for whatever reason, you just don’t get on with it, and you decide you want to go back to PixelOS, it’s SUPER easy. You can basically reverse everything you’ve just done and re-install pixelOS which will bring your phone back to a fresh install of Googles Pixel OS in a similar amount of time that it took to set the phone up, so about 15 minutes.
So GrapheneOS, for the right person, is currently the best way to protect your data and your privacy, whilst still being able to use a mobile phone with as many of the features that you want to allow.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one.
