Motorola partners with GrapheneOS for future phones

GrapheneOS is headed to Motorola smartphones in 2027, pending hardware from the Lenovo-owned brand that satisfies the privacy-focused Android fork's requirements. Motorola unveiled the partnership at the Mobile World Congress on March 2, claiming it would "bring cutting-edge security to everyday users across the globe." …

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Any GrapheneOS users here?

I took a quick look at the GrapheneOS project, and it does seem interesting. I'd be curious to know if any commentards have used it and have an opinion.

[jailbird]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

I use it, but not as a daily driver. I like it, and it's definitely the best version of Android for the privacy paranoid.

[ABugNamedJune]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

I used it as my primary phone OS for a little while, and it's fine. I switched from Lineage to Graphene and then back to Lineage. I think Graphene is great if you really want to nail down your privacy, but it's demands for the newest hardware are a dealbreaker for me. Using Lineage with several modifications gives me the privacy and security I want, and some of the added quality of life features that Graphene can't offer.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

When you say "quality of life features," what do you mean?

[timrosu]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

Maybe seedvault? Alternative backup solution that lets you choose your own storage (internal, local mount, wedav, davx5).

[Eric 9001]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

GrapheneOS and any other Android version is terrible for your privacy, as it gives a false sense of privacy, while you don't have any.

Such devices and Android were specifically designed to spy on you and installing a slightly modified version of Android that isn't even half source-available clearly doesn't achieve any privacy in practice.

[timrosu]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

I use it on my pixel 8 pro. It's great. I even managed to set up work profile on it with ms intune and injected apps i need with an adb script. I disabled these work apps from my owner profile and because the 2 installs are linked, aurora store can update them for me.

Aside from that, I try to stay away from proprietary apps and services, I'm moving to either selfhosted stuff (immich, webdav/caldav server, navidrome, jellyfin) or more private options like signal for comms with normal people. Other apps are 95% from fdroid although I'm slowly moving the update function into obtanium as fdroid has some weird release signing procedure after build on their server.

I still have bank apps on my phone, but in a separate - private profile that is easily accessible from the bottom of the app drawer. I then also have a separate profile for school where i have ms teams and authenticator.

Google wallet doesn't work, but curve does.

I also have bluetooth and wifi set to automatically turn off after some time and I also turn off nfc when I'm not at the checkout in store.

[Rory B Bellows]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

I picked up a cheap pixel 6a a few years back and put graphene on it just to try it out. It was a fun little project just to try installing a different OS on a smart phone. These days I mainly just use it for wigle war driving on road trips. But if my primary phone ever fails I will have something to use without having to buy something.

[Chet Mannly]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

Yep, daily driver here. Big fan and have no desire to go back to regular android.

Security updates come out at least weekly and months in advance of phones like Samsungs.

Everything I've tried works except for Google Wallet (I don't use it, but it's widely reported it doesn't work). That includes banking apps.

Best thing is the battery life - I have it on a 9 Pro Fold, a phone not known for it's battery life, and I get 2 days out of it easily (for comparison the same use on a Samsung Fold 3 had it completely dead within 10 hours).

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

Daily driver since the Pixel3. Only thing that doesn't work is my corporate Microsoft Work Profile, apparently it can be made to work if IT select "any secure system" instead of "pure Google only" in their management console. Authenticator app does work, but I can't be called on Teams at home at 11:00pm :-(

Nice feature is that it has separate users, beyond the normal Android Profiles. So you can have a separate user for all your banking apps and another for your "install this dodgy app and give it lots of permissions to enable your smart butplug Coffee Mug"

[Irongut]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

> months in advance of phones like Samsungs.

Months? Plural? That would be difficult.

All my Samsung devices from A-series handsets to S-series handsets, a watch and tablets recieve security updates 1 month after Google publishes them.

So you're telling us you get security updates before the bugs are reported to Google?

Two days battery life, huh? I get three days with my S22 and it is 4 years old now.

[Chet Mannly]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

The last security update on my phone included up to the August 2026 security bulletins. The latest available software on my Samsung is patched to January 2026.

So yes months plural.

Google often gives patches to OEMs 3-4 months in advance so they have time to incorporate them in their software. So a "December" patch update for example usually includes security fixes that Google actually made in September. Graphene don't wait, they get them at the same time as the OEMs and release them straight away.

Check the website if you don't believe me...

[tekHedd]

Battery Life

Based on my OnePlus, I can just about double my battery life by simply disabling Play Store when I'm not actively installing updates.

I'm sure there's a really good reason for its obscene battery use that is in no way related to telemetry or marketing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

Daily driver on a pixel 9, main advantage is the total removal of the google/android AI crap, otherwise its android with everything in its own sandbox, no issues with any application to date.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

i used graphene with my pixel 6, before switching to another phone because i didn't like the specs of the pixels.

the short story: i absolutely loved it! i was able to see the full logs of the apps i was using, which is important to me because i use a lot of third-party sideloaded apps. the only issue i had with grapheneOS was that some banking apps wouldn't work properly - which if anyone is thinking about switching, ask around the community and see if important apps work or don't. i also remember that the McDonald's app wouldn't work sometime, but that's about all of the issues i had with the operating system.

i switched off of my pixel 6 because of the lackluster processing power and low amount of RAM. i currently own a Sony Xperia 1V, but I'm about ready to drop that phone and move back to something else.

[AJ MacLeod]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

My Pixel 9a is my only phone and was purchased specifically to run GrapheneOS (knowing I could fall back to standard Android if it was a disaster.) It's been a breath of fresh air and everything other than one bank app has worked for me (the Starling app works fine which is the important one for me)... I already self-host pretty much everything (email/matrix/paperless etc) so generally use open source apps from f-droid.

The irony of having to buy a Google phone to get clear of Google's spying was not at all lost on me!

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

If you want to be totally Google-Free then LineageOS plus some flavour of MicroG is the answer

Grapheneos allows you to safely use Google features (like play store services) and restrict their access to the rest of your stuff

You can of course also disable them and use FDroid / Obtainium

[Ganso]

Re: Any GrapheneOS users here?

Here! I run it in a Pixel 6, I had to swallow the pill of Google's nonsense like no SD Card slot or audio jack, but after that it was smooth sailing.

I did not go the fully hardcore degoogled way, because I need some apps from the play store, but most banking apps work (one bank app never worked, but I think the app was shitty and also their web service anyway).

I am a happy customer and I have donated to the project.

[zebm]

I've just replaced my Moto g54 5G as it was continuously downloading and installing apps without permission. I assume they will get even worse with GrapheneOS.

[jailbird]

GrapheneOS lets you lock everything down, so very doubtful.

[Eric 9001]

GrapheneOS may let you configure some settings, but I'm doubtful about the locking things down.

If the mobile chipset wants to install and run something, how does GrapheneOS stop it?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Cos it doesn't have access to the filesystem ?

[Eric 9001]

How do you know that? For the relevant phone model(s), how is mobile chipset access to the filesystem prevented?

Most modems seem to be connected over PCIe now, which has DMA, or some other interface that has DMA.

IOMMU is meant to prevent unauthorized memory access by the modem, but that's useless if the modem decides whether to turn IOMMU on or not.

Even if the device is has working IOMMU or uses an interface without DMA, it is trivial to put a backdoor in the modem library, which needs privileged access to at least some files on the filesystem to work.

For the Samsung Galaxy's with a modem connected over embedded USB (no DMA), there was a backdoor inserted into the proprietary modem library that gave the mobile chipset filesystem access; https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/SamsungGalaxyBackdoor

As far as I am aware, GrapheneOS distributes the proprietary modem libraries and hasn't developed free replacements, without backdoors - thus unless proven otherwise, I would assume that the mobile chipset has filesystem access (SELinux is possible to bypass in many cases).

[mike.dee]

You can stop downloading and disable that stuff even on Android, it isn't straightforward, but I've found info in xda-developers in how to stop it.

[takno]

Look, I know you *think* you don't want the live lockscreen and Motorola AI to be updated and re-enabled with every single Android security update, but Motorola know exactly what you really want, and it's whatever makes them most money short term.

[parrot]

Hmm… I've heard that somewhere before…

“People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.“

Guess who?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is great news!

My favorite phone I ever owned was a tiny Motorola that I flashed to run Lineage OS.

The battery, even though small, would last over a week without needing a charge.

Sadly, the phone no longer functions since 3G became obsolete in my area.

But I must admit I am a bit concerned that Motorola is now owned by Lenovo based on their many controversies.

[ABugNamedJune]

Kind of surprised to see this news coming from Motorola, but it is promising. I think I'm biased since I've never owned one of their flagship phones, but I have intermittently primaried MotoG Plays as work phones and getting them to allow me to unlock the bootloader was challenging to say the least. They've never seen like the type who would want anyone to actually access the hardware they paid for.

[mostly average]

There is no Motorola

There is only Lenovo. And you can expect them to be exactly as privacy focused as the rest of the CCP.

Sarcasm aside the move makes sense, as this will interrupt the data flow to what they (probably correctly) view as a foreign intelligence operation. The real question is how this will serve their own intelligence apparatus.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: There is no Motorola

Alternative is NSA Google Pixel

Question who do you care about having access to your phone? Your local ICE thug or the Chinese army ?

Also this is comparing some secret undetectable exploit baked into the Taiwanese SOC silicon by the CCP that somehow gets around the OS's security and encryption VS. Google just automatically forwarding all your emails/web browsing to the authorities

[Snake]

Re: NSA

This. You either have everything going through company servers with claims of "privacy!" (Apple); you have a phone spammed with all sorts of auto-installed apps that you have no idea what they are doing {Samsung); a phone provided by an ad company with embedded telemetry as a 'feature' (Google)...or a possible alternative.

I'll risk that alternative. I'm thankful that I'll [finally] have that alternative for my next phone purchase.

[Eric 9001]

Re: There is no Motorola

Every mobile chipset from the very start has had a backdoor designed in - that isn't even a secret.

But the SoC is protected by IOMMU right?

Spoiler: usually the mobile chipset turns on and then decides whether to enable IOMMU.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: There is no Motorola

So somebody has been wasting a lot of money buying Cellebrite if all they had to do was call up Qualcomm/Broadcom and ask for the keys

[Eric 9001]

Re: There is no Motorola

Clearly, details on how to utilize the backdoor in each mobile chipset not made available to everyone and certainly isn't available cheap (unless sufficient reverse engineering to find it is opted for instead, although that can take a very long time depending on the level of obfuscation (really bad code is very effective at obfuscation)).

Or maybe it only takes a few hours to find if you look, like this backdoor; https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/SamsungGalaxyBackdoor

Still, if there are easier, quicker and/or cheaper backdoors available (i.e. from Cellebrite), those are used instead when it'll do the job.

[Butlinsboy]

Been using GOS for a while now, but I really don't like my Google pixel 7, this news is so good for me as Motorola was my first love in 1996, and it will be my last.

[Captain Hogwash]

Moto of the future and Moto of the past.

[skalamanga]

It's about time there was a shift to making all hardware OS agnostic

[TVU]

It is good to hear that GrapheneOS now has a partner in the form of Motorola. I hope that the partnership works well and all credit to lead developer Daniel Micay.

The history of CopperheadOS and GrapheneOS also makes for an interesting read.

[_wojtek]

regulate...

while welcomed this ultimately changes nothing... there must be a regulation that forces any "essential app" (thinking banking) not to be locked behind play store and device integrity verification... without that everything is futile and pushing more and more power to google & usania...

[Eric 9001]

Now that custom hardware is being commissioned

That hardware will work without totally compromised proprietary software right?

Wait, it'll require 500+MiB of proprietary software, with digital signatures to prevent it from being replaced?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Now that custom hardware is being commissioned

After a casual look at your posting history I have to ask. Why are you even on the internet with your level of paranoia? You must go thru several rolls of tinfoil every day.

[Eric 9001]

Re: Now that custom hardware is being commissioned

It's not paranoia if you're correct.

Aluminum foil actually boosts receptivity to governmental signals; https://www.howtogeek.com/114037/researchers-prove-tin-foil-hats-boost-receptivity-to-government-signals/

You'd need properly grounded lead foil to do anything (preferably as a Faraday cage for the whole room).

I'm on the internet with free software.

[running with nukes]

Full featured phone

And the relevant xkcd cartoon --

https://xkcd.com/2000/

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Full featured phone

XKCD forgot the most obvious requirement for an American phone

[mIVQU#~(p,]

This is welcome news.

[Anonymous Coward]

No "AI" ? The holy grail ?

I skim read, but is this the case