I currently use an iPhone as my primary device and plan to stick with it, since I’ve found that running GrapheneOS on a Pixel can sometimes cause compatibility issues with banking and other essential apps. This has led me to consider a two-phone strategy.
I’m planning to get a Pixel phone specifically to run GrapheneOS as a privacy-focused secondary device. Since this phone will essentially function as a ‘dumbphone’ – mainly for calling family members and running select social apps where privacy is a priority – I’m questioning whether investing in the latest flagship Pixel model makes sense.
To save money, I’ve been looking at used Pixel 7 or even Pixel 6 options. However, I have concerns about the longevity of GrapheneOS support for these older models. My hesitation stems from seeing that the Pixel 5, which was released in 2020, has already lost GrapheneOS support. This makes me wonder if purchasing an older model might be shortsighted, even if it’s more cost-effective initially. Would the smart move be to invest in a newer model for longer-term software support, or would a previous-generation Pixel still serve my limited use case well enough?
I can block certain requests on social media apps like Facebook, Messenger and Instagram on GOS no? There’s also the fact that some android apps are super useful, such as imagepipe, etc. So for those reasons also I’m eyeing a pixel.
On apple I can’t block any of these requests, and I don’t have total control of the incoming and outgoing connection of my phone. Gonna be using the iphone strictly for official purposes and bank related stuff.
As someone who’s trying to adopt their phone as such by making such user, This is a valid thing to do, especially as we live in a world where if you have a worse impulse like I do often than other humans this dramatically helps. And in a world where our phoned just constantly keep us connected no matter where we are even in a irl social situation. Having a setup like this you can bring is in my opinion justified and can advice OP from what to buy to how to configure.
I see OP is @been, let me know as I have recently been executing this.
Edit: I would say spend less not alot to clarify from the first step.
GOS doesn’t have any specific function for that, maybe you’re referring to the possibility to use a custom private DNS with block lists?
It’s a common misconception to think that just using GOS make apps magically private.
If your use case it’s social medias I don’t see how GOS could make a difference.
I would instead consider to do the other way around, use GOS for your personal stuff and the iPhone for the social medias/dumbphone.
No, but apple collects data, and you are forced into using apples devices with an online account (Apple ID is it called if I don’t confuse it). You can’t uninstall certain apps, and you can’t use all apps (Newpipe as an example).
I could go on, and the list is long.
That’s exactly why I suggested to reconsider to use GOS as primary device. If the OP has decided to still use his iPhone I see no real benefit and buying a new pixel to use it just as a dumbphone is a waste of money imo. For that use case probably a cheaper Android phone would do just fine.
So would be a cheaper pixel for that, like the 6a or 7a.
Though I 100% Would not spend it on a Pixel 9 for example or 8a only for it to be a dumb phone.
Yes for sure but having a pixel with GOS to continue to use the iPhone for personal essential stuff I still fail to see where are the benefits in privacy you can achieve.
Cell calls are not more private in GOS than with the iPhone nor social media apps. It seems to me the OP is over complicating his setup with two devices without real gains in privacy.
I think GOS is superior to iOS but if the OP is locked in the apple ecosystem and banking does not work in GOS the inconvenience of splitting daily activities on two devices seems hard to manage.
So back to the original question, I don’t think spending A LOT for a pixel to use it as a DUMBPHONE is worth it but if it could help slow transitioning away from apple than it’s ok I guess.
The newer pixels have guaranteed 7 years of support from Google. It’s not really GrapheneOS’s decision when to drop support, when Google stops supporting them that’s it. I wouldn’t go earlier than the Pixel 8 since that’s when they started giving 7 years of support.
Tbh it is still not worth the price, 6a or 7a take or leave, we can see when the 8a gets cheaper though but for what it is now, it’s not worth getting something like the 8a for dumbphone purposes.
I guess I don’t understand why you can’t also just delete the stuff you don’t want on the iPhone. There’s even a mode called Assistive Access that makes it much more simplified. I don’t really get the two phone strategy here.
If you are 100% sure that you want a physically different phone then disregard this.
Are you aware of the ability Android to create different user profiles? On my 8a I have 5 different ones in addition to the Owner/admin. Each serves a different purpose and is completely isolated from the others. The most you could enable them to do is to run in the background and send a notification to the profile you are currently in, but these are off by default.
If you had any Android you could set up a profile to only have the basics and another with more apps like social media for example. The downside would be it is the same physical phone and there would be the temptation to easily switch profiles. On my 8a the “hardest” I could make it for me to switch to a specific profile would be to have a complicated password.
Yep that’s what I do too.
I was initially thinking of buying the Punkt MP02, No App Store, No Browser, perfect for my problematic impulse. But then I’ve decided to replicate the setup on my Google Pixel 7 on the condition of: Control the Impulse of switching away (if that doesn’t work I’ll just eat my 270-300 bucks on it) and I have put the necessary measures to replicate the functionality of the MP02 in a separate user
In general my setup is consisted of Users I seperate into categories:
Balanced (Owner) [Basically a balance of FOSS/Private alternatives and some apps that aren’t as such and a game]
Notorious Apps: User that has apps I would know or been known to be notoriously not private: eg. I check my friend’s Instagram for privacy reasons as to make sure I’m not in frame (face) even if my threat model doesn’t call for that but still. A frenzy of apps like meta’s to shout into the void lmao.
Focus: This is a user that has just: Signal and Viber, Browser, Maps and Music and all the others and that’s it, still quite not Focus enough in my experience but I guess enough if I’m driving or travelling or something. Still can be distracting.
[Recently Created] Full Focus: Focusing on recreating the experience of say the MP02 but with no Browser to be present (disabled) and just: Signal, my keyboard of choice and the camera for some rare cases and the usual stuff included. (Take that Punkt MP02), Nothing More Nothing less and the internet connectivity will only be used for signal and updates. I also have planned to only do maintenance on it at home unless there is an emergency maintenance but that would be rare I think.