A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
It depends on what phone you have. Some phones have bootloaders you can't unlock, and you can't do much at all with that. If you can unlock the bootloader, your options are determined by which third-party Android builds support your hardware.
LineageOS is a popular option with pretty broad device support; GrapheneOS is a privacy/security focused option that only runs on Pixels.
In my opinion, the worst Android flavor among the popular ones is the Samsung's One UI. Notoriously bad in terms of tracking and telemetry. Yeah these Chinese ROMs are certainly bad, but where I am from, these are few and far between.
The worst thing about Samsung is the inability to install any Custom ROM despite it being a Snapdragon chip. Other manufactures like Xiaomi or OnePlus sometimes let's users do that (albeit the process might be a little difficult).
But to answer your question, look into LineageOS's supported device list. Pick a device from there and install LineageOS. Or better still by a Pixel (there are talks about a partnership with an unknown OEM and GOS, but no clear news on that as of yet) and install GrapheneOS.
Getting annoyed with the attention economy and swapping to this (I love it)
edit: it's a uniherz jelly star green edition
๐
Yes I'd like to buy 2 please.
One of my devices is the atom already. I'm more wondering what I can do with my other devices I already have
๐hi phone twin!
8210 form-factor is here again. Honestly thought it would never be back!
Hells-bells! I never even knew these things existed. I am very tempted. If I hadn't already got used to an excellent camera and size of a slightly larger screen.
i can't unlock bootloader of my phone, and can't install custom rom, im cooked asf
knowing that the android's ability to sideload/install apks is going be removed next year I feel like there's no way out from the corporate greed
Actually what finally spurred me to ask this question.
If it helps it looks like that they're backtracking on that but I'll believe it when I see it
First thing out of hubs mouth when I mentioned hearing about it: "That was their only advantage over apple!"
It's why I'm watching out for plans where you can build your own phone with off the shelf parts.
Two problems:
The closest thing is LineageOS. If your phone doesn't support it, there's Generic System Images (GSI), but there's no guarantee of getting cellular service after installing a GSI due to proprietary drivers.
If you want something that just works, GrapheneOS is great, but you'll need an unlocked Google Pixel.
I think the answer to your question is Graphene?
What model is your phone? Definitely GrapheneOS if you use a Pixel.
If you list your phone model I can research your options for you. I know overall that Samsung phones are the worst offenders for restricting your options though, along with iPhones OFC.
going back to a nokia 3310
Depends strongly, what phone do you have?
A unihertz atom, a 2022 moto g, and one of these monstrosities.
You are absolutely and completely out of luck, all three of the devices mentioned use Mediatek processors. Mediatek is widely known as having the absolute worst support for custom roms due to no open source drivers being available and generally no support for developers.
As a rule of thumb if it runs android and it doesn't use Snapdragon or Tensor it doesn't support custom roms. If it uses Snapdragon and specifically has an unlockable bootloader than it might support custom roms. Finally if it runs a Tensor processor (with the exception of Pixel 10 due to being too new) than it is guaranteed to either run custom roms or eventually run custom roms (no guarantee for future tensor devices).
So if you want my reccomendation for phone brands it would be in this order:
Custom roms/custom OSs (excluding forks and custom builds):
LineageOS: The largest and original custom rom, as the evolution of CyanogenOS it is the #1 custom rom that nearly eveyone thinks of when they think of custom roms. It supports 559 devices however keep in mind only 44% (247) support LineageOS 22.2 or up (Android 15) and only 23% (132) support LineageOS 23 (Android 16). Due to complications Android 16 QPR1 is not included in LineageOS 23.
GraphineOS: As the unofficial evolution of CopperheadOS, GraphineOS is newer (initially releasing in 2019) and widely considered the most secure custom OS (the devs insist the term "custom rom" is outdated and does not apply to GOS). Its also the most polished custom rom receiving regular updates and security patches significantly faster than any other mobile OS (even stock PixelOS). It focuses purely on security features and in that regard it succeeds. However keep in mind that means no microg (instead a secure sandboxed implementation of google services), almost no additional customization features, and especially no root. Also keep in mind only Google Pixels are supported for now (an unknown and unnamed OEM will start supporting GOS soon) and only as long as Google supports them (for security purposes). This means it supports Pixel 6 and up currently.
I always had garbage luck with MTK devices in the past with performance.
Right out of the box, all blazing fast, but just a month later they're down to 1/3 of their original speed. It could've just been me, but I went through a "buy cheap devices to dick around with" phase in college and this happened with all of them (8-10 devices maybe?).
May not be an issue now, but definitely was then.
Still is, well except modern mediatek devices are slow from the first boot to ewaste
You can have microG and use something like Aurora store for most applications (What I'm using on my setup right now)
Yeah but its a less secure way of using GraphineOS, the fact is the sandboxed Google play services is the most secure way to use it (what im using on my GOS setup)
I wonder if using sandboxed google play services without actual google account login (like in my case, using aurora) is a possible option, since I didn't really check. It's probably worth a look on the graphene forums at least.
Nope, you can quickly set up an alt acc tho
Well, just experimented (removed MicroG and purged the components, reinstalled the Graphene sandboxed play services), and it seems like it just works. Even Aurora seems to work okay, managed to download and install Signal.
So I guess if you're willing, you can just use Aurora with an Anon acc if you just need base apps without google login.
Everyone has their own use case, needs and preferences My thought is that you have the following options - not in any order as you will have your preferences
What did I do? On my Samsung tablet, I used Universal Android Debloater AND run RethinkDNS & Firewall. Not as good as Graphene, but cheap / free and 90% of the same.
This idea I like most out of the suggested options, ty
The real answer is PostmarketOS. Look at all the phones supported. They add new phones every 2 weeks/month as more people volunteer to help get phones they own supported. The Fairphones are an amazing option with PostmarketOS. Can switch to different distros too (Not the same as it is for laptops yet for switching distros but the overall function works as daily driver. Just pick phones that have full support)
It would be getting annoyed with iPhone and switching to Android ;)