For some time now I have been assessing my online privacy. I don’t want to be followed by parties like Google and Meta. Everything I do on the internet is basically my own business. So privacy is important, I don’t have to be anonymous. When I write messages in emails or Whatsapp about a nice hotel in Spain, I don’t want to be bombarded with emails, advertisements and messages about hotels in Spain for weeks. I am horrified by Google pay, I do not think the idea that Google has insight into my payment transactions is okay. At the moment I am using the entire Proton suite, documents are in Proton drive, media files in pCLoud, I am searching with Swisscows (Metager is very complicated) and my DNS is running via ControlD. In addition to Proton Pass, I also use Fido keys. Now it is mobile telephony’s turn. At the moment I have an Honor Magic6 Pro, a really great device. I am considering switching to a Googple Pixel 9 Pro with GrapheneOs or an Apple iPhone 16. The latter is easy, because I also use an Apple laptop. It seems that Apple pay is also fairly privacy-friendly. Again, privacy is very important, anonymity is not a necessity. Google makes beautiful products, but the data hunger has blown in my view. What do you advise me in the field of mobile telephony?
To answer your question, I think you need to ask yourself some of the following questions:
What in iPhone you can and can’t live without?
What in GrapheneOS you can and can’t live without?
Are there select apps that you want to use that’s only on iOS?
Is the iPhone camera too good to let go of?
Because you’re threat model is easily manageable either way or device you choose, you can simply make a pros and cons list and add value/weight to each item on each side. It really could be as simple as this.
In my view, going with GrapheneOS is going to be better long term because Apple and iOS and getting and will keep worsening with enshittification. It’s also much more private and secure*.
I recently moved to GrapheneOS from iOS and while there are many differences, I do feel better using it knowing it’s more private and secure and the OS gives me a lot of flexibility with software and whatnot.
So that’s my advice. Hope it helps. There’s also a lot of discussion about this in the forum so please read up on all that’s already said and discussed to aid you in your decision making process.
I would like to second this. Having always used Android and iOS in parallel, I have recently moved entirely across to GrapheneOS. At the moment, I am still relying heavily on Sandboxed Google Play Services for a number of apps for which there are simply no FOSS alternatives (e.g., banking and WhatsApp) but I am continuously moving more and more of my activity from the ‘Google’ profile to the ‘FOSS’ profiles. So I can now spend large parts of my day entirely unplugged from Google and can switch back only when needed. In addition, there are countless articles listing the examples when Apple has been paying only lip service to their own privacy claims. Personally, I found this article particularly off-putting:
So whilst this only applies to new iPhones, it is clearly the direction of travel and I find that very worrying.
That article is alarmist nonsense, the feature they’re talking about is a fully on-device and opt-in nudity warning. There’s no surveillance going on, it’s just pure speculation with no foundation. Also some other local AI features in photos and such.
Google has a similar thing with their Safety Core, GrapheneOS even said they’d include it if it was open source.
The issue with Apple’s old CSAM scanning they wanted to implement was it could report you to the authorities, if data stays local to the device there’s no issue.
Braxman has a video out along the same lines and even though I’m no expert he at least appears to be somewhat competent. Be that as it may, I still favour GrapheneOS over iOS as I do not trust Apple.
Braxman is sensationalistic. He talks to much but says very little without considering the nuances of anything and the subject matter at large. To me and many others, he is fear-mongering to a point of misinformation because with all that he says, those in the know know along with what he says and how, what’s also important is what he doesn’t. Its akin to lying by omission.
I sincerely do not recommend anyone follow him for any advice. But you do you.. just know this however.
That’s a fair point but does not necessarily invalidate my point regarding GrapheneOS vs iOS as a whole. My view is that irrespective of what any of these people say, I inherently have more trust in GrapheneOS than in Apple due to the degree of control and transparency that they provide as well as their general monetisation model. Peoe may disagree with me but I personally struggle to believe that the largest company in the world has my best interest at heart. This obviously applied to all the Big Tech.
My comment was only regarding Braxman.
But yes, GOS > iOS
Thank you. For people with non-technical backgrounds like myself it’s often difficult to differentiate who is trustworthy and who is not so I appreciate your comment.
Techlore, Privacy Guides, Naomi Brockerll of NBTV are all great and reputable and trustworthy resources for your privacy news and education. So I recommend following them all.
I’m not a big fan of YouTubers, I think it’s impossible for any one person or small group of people to be right about everything. Community involvement is important, we can’t possibly know everything and you guys correct Privacy Guides on stuff all the time. It’s a team effort, and it’s why things like Wikipedia are so successful I think. So I would try to avoid YouTubers or anyone who presents themselves as a singular privacy expert that you should listen to about everything, the dynamic for something like this needs to be a lot more collaborative I feel.
I thought I read somewhere that Techlore were bashing GrapheneOS for no apparent reason other than some personal issue they have with David Micay. May be an isolated incident but that’s pretty poor form if it’s true. I do follow them regardless (incl the Surveillance Report Podcast) as well as Naomi Brockwell. My favourite was the Michael Bazzell podcast but sadly that one is no more.
Counter point - listening to multiple YouTubers who are reputable is good because you’re getting info from multiple sources. They are one part of a good information diet, the other parts being industry experts and researchers, reputable journalists, companies themselves who make these products and publish info on them, and forums like this. 
I think your thinking is quite hardlined.
Only select few if any are promising 100% accuracy about 100% of the things they talk about. So your “argument” or point “against” YouTubers is moot right there.
So, you saying you’re not a big fan of YouTuber’s still is perplexing. But alright..
It’s certainly possible to be wrong about nearly everything though 
Congrats, you are already on a really good track !
Apple Pays is indeed quite privacy-respecting, more than Google Pay or your card. Jonah made a video on this.
GrapheneOS is without a doubt better for privacy than iOS. You have unique apps on Android (android-exclusive I currently use : Feeder, Breezy Weather, NewPipe, Moshidon, Open Tracks, RTranslator, PocketPal AI) although you might find similar apps on iOS. Depending on your expectations, it might be perfectly fine even if you use a Macbook (as I do).
iOS is the second best (least worse) option. I know that I wouldn’t be as satisfied with iOS than I am with GrapheneOS and I wouldn’t have that much peace of mind and freedom (for, you know, the day our govts might ban Signal VPNs or specific contents). Or for the day I could become more targeted because of my activities. By using an iPhone, you are also more likely to delve into Apple’s ecosystem and to use more services from them. Are you OK with this?
I would recommend going with GrapheneOS if you value freedom and privacy. I know it’s commonplace to say this but I really mean it.
GrapheneOS can also be a really, really convenient, nice looking and useful smpartphone even if you do little sacrifices, in my opinion. I would recommend with the more recent Pixel series you can, I appreciate MUCH more my experience in the 9 v. the 7.
Tell us when you decide !
Regardless of your choice you are on a good track.
The way how I see this is that we need people from multiple fields willing to talk about privacy-related issues to have the biggest impact. This is why it is also important to have a presence in YouTube. Advocating for privacy goes also beyond discussing the right privacy-tools and thus, the issue isn’t even about one person being always right as that shouldn’t be even expected from them. What matters is that people are talking about privacy, which should matter more than small mistakes they might make along the way.
One consideration is app support. Google is pushing the play integrity api on more and more apps. You can’t use some apps anymore on grapheneos due to this like eBay, authy, some governement apps, etc. They can only be run on stock Android, which is much less private than iOS.
mod edit: snip
There is barely any good info about Privacy on YouTube. In fact many of the more popular privacy YouTubers talk a lot of nonsense. There are some notable exceptions. But Techlore is not a good source of information.
For security you can at least get some good info by watching expert talks recorded at conferences, but YouTube makes it difficult to find them.
I agree, the vast majority of PrivSec content on YouTube is garbage, and if it’s not, then it will be in the future when the information gets outdated.