Hello everyone!
I thought I would share my latest blog post here since the topic might interest many of you. Please share your thoughts if you have any!
After I moved from iOS to GrapheneOS, and spent over 3 years on Android, I’m now back on iOS. My blog post explores my reasons behind this choice and what I like about each platform.
Fun read. I want to provide some constructive criticisim.
You seem to spend far more time on GrapheneOS then you do on iOS which made your reasons for switching back to iOS come off a bit flat. As a reader, I wanted more about what convinced you to switch and why your sticking with it.
From what I could tell the only phone related reason in the article was face scan.
I respect the other reasons you mentioned. I don’t think anyone disagrees with you about the GOS communication style. The Louis Rossman drama was not a good look for GOS. I just wish there were more reasons that were directly involved with using each OS.
You do mention other features such as
When I was still using GrapheneOS, Apple brought many privacy and security improvements to its operating systems, such as Lockdown Mode and the previously mentioned Advanced Data Protection.
but those come off like they were features to help catch up to GrapheneOS, not features that helped convince you to switch.
Both of them restored much of my confidence in Apple, so it became a choice I could consider again.
I also wish you had provided a bit more specifics for the issues with Pixels performance. While I believe there are performance issues, claims like
An iPhone 11 Pro that I had before moving to the Pixel 6 has similar performance to the Pixel 9
would come off better if you added a source.
Advanced Data Protection (ADP) is one of the best privacy features Apple has released in recent years, and since our family has an iCloud subscription, I’m able to take advantage of that. To be clear, if Apple didn’t offer ADP, I would store my stuff elsewhere. The implementation is so smooth that even my non tech-savvy family members don’t notice it being turned on. It just does its thing in the background without affecting the usability of the phone. Just save the recovery code in your password manager or add a recovery contact.
You choosen convenience over privacy. You are putting Trust in Apple’s ecosystem.
On GrapheneOS, I was using Ente for storing my photos and videos.
Even when you’ve been on GrapheneOS, you’ve used Ente instead of an offline option like Photok or SnapSafe.
Government pressure Apple disabled ADP for UK users in 2025 due to legal demands, showing that even end-to-end encryption can be rolled back under regulation. This proves that availability of strong encryption is not guaranteed long-term
This is why i never trust cloud based solution.
Being able to use Apple Pay is another benefit of iOS. With GrapheneOS, I didn’t have access to similar NFC payment options that once backfired when I had left my wallet at home. I had to leave everything at the store and was almost ready to give up on GrapheneOS then and there.
For this you can easily buy a cheap secondary phone just for nfc and you can keep the gos as main.
While I don’t use my phone for intensive tasks, it is still ridiculous how far behind the competition the Pixel’s performance is. My iPhone 16e is more powerful than any Pixel device
I agree with you here Pixel performance is worse. You don’t even need to compare it to the iPhone; among Android phones, Pixel performance is quite poor.
Thank you for your feedback.
I guess I spent more time discussing GrapheneOS simply because there is more to discuss, and perhaps I could have argued better why I moved back to iOS. But as the article highlights, I’m still questioning if this choice was even the right one, especially since GrapheneOS has so many cool features.
Apple’s Advanced Data Protection was definitely one reason that convinced me to switch, while Lockdown Mode is more like a nice to have feature since I’m not using it.
I may update the article to add sources for the performance claims, but I was simply comparing Geekbench 6 results. There is also this article that discusses this topic as well.
Thank you for your feedback.
There is probably some truth to this, but that’s the choice we have with all privacy tools. We need to decide how much privacy we’re willing to give up to gain convenience. And for many people, an iPhone is probably a good compromise.
I agree that governments can try attacking encryption, and it can lead to situations like what happened in UK. But I don’t think that has to mean we give up on cloud. That means we need to continue fighting against proposals that question our privacy rights.
Maybe I could of framed my criticism better…To me, the most interesting part of the the premise is that a privacy oriented individual switched back to iOS after three years on GOS, so it felt like there might be a lot of meat left on the bone of why that is to explore but, maybe thats harder to articulate if you are still unsure of your decision.
That makes sense I really resonated with
While Ente is great, the slow video loading times made my experience quite frustrating from time to time.
My partner hates when we have to go through photos or videos on my phone for this exact reason.
Thanks for Android Authority link, I will have a look.
Great article. The read was pleasant.
Just one criticism/nots
People have also been concerned about Google’s plans to further restrict Android by requiring developers to identify themselves to have their apps available on Android.
That will not impact Graphene OS. Sure, it will impact the broader ecosystem, but not custom Androids (“ROMS”)
Nice article. I love AntennaPod.
There have been times where I consider moving back to iOS after 3 years, and they are all mainly related to features for kids, i.e., screen time, tracking, etc. I just can’t get over the walled garden anymore with my data. Once I was able to control my own data when and how I wanted, I just can’t go back.
Also wanted to comment on the nice discourse in this thread.
I can relate to this. Being better able to control my data was a clear advantage of GOS. But I would also challenge the argument that by using an iPhone or any other Apple device, you get locked into its walled garden, where it’s difficult to get out of. The thing is, most privacy software is available on both iOS and Android, so while you could use Apple’s own services that make leaving more challenging, you’re not required to do that.
That’s very true. At the time I was on iOS, Ente Photos, for example, wasn’t around. I couldn’t find an alternative to iCloud for my photos at that time. If the Motorola phone is a bust, I may consider going back to iOS and using Signal, Ente Photos, Ente Auth, Simplex, Keepasium, ProtonMail, ProtonVPN, ProtonDrive, and ProtonCalendar. That would cover about 90% of my daily usage.
My other problems is I can’t verify that iOS doesn’t sniff what goes through the hardware to my services (I mean literally, I don’t understand hardware/software enough to know what’s possible or feasible).
The article seems ill-informed. The restrictions that Google plans for “Android” are not relevant for forks such as Graphene. They will only apply to apps distributed through the Play Store. The AOSP is unaffected as it is open source and any restrictions there don’t make any sense as they can be trivially patched.
Apple privacy claims are just marketing, and even assuming everything is implemented correctly without backdoors, the UK experience clearly shows how fast things can change.
As for photo storage, you should really look into self-hosted options if you want the best performance and security. No “cloud” can compete with local storage backed up by good hardware under your control.
While GrapheneOS may not be directly affected, the app developers definitely are. They can’t just decide to stop offering their apps to everyone but GrapheneOS users. There is a reason F-Droid and Obtainium are fighting against this because it affects them. While we can use GrapheneOS, we shouldn’t ignore the consequences Google’s plans have for the whole Android app ecosystem.
I would also say that this blog post is me simply reflecting on my experience and considering the best option for me. You may disagree with my choice, but calling Apple’s privacy features as just marketing is ill-informed. Self-hosting isn’t for everyone.
I saw the UK mentioned earlier wrt Apple’s ADP. I imagine most people already know this, but just for those who might not. If you already had ADP turned on it is still working and available in the UK. It’s just no longer available for new users.
I agree with the overall idea. I would just say it would definitely deal a heavy blow to OSS developers, but not fatal. Many small app/project don’t care about reach, they just want something for their use/as a fun project.
You can still switch if the E2EE is banned in your location.
If you a very worried then you could also disable automatic updates for the specific apps that do E2EE, at least F-Droid has this option
Misleading. They cannot decrypt existing encrypted content by definition.
I was glad to see your post. I also switched to GrapheneOS from iOS and now I’ve had to switch back. Like you, I found a lot to like about GrapheneOS. And there’s still a lot I don’t like about iOS. Ultimately, what it came down to was due to the way that my employer had set up their Google Workspace, where they try to force-install components that are incompatible with GrapheneOS. I spent months trying to work around this. There were other issues with using this in a work context. I also spent way too much time trying to replace apps (so grateful to this site) and figuring out how to make the underlying Android system easier to use.