I highly recommend lineageOS, or better yet lineageOS with microg.
Running a completely degoogled android phone right now, and it feels smooth as butter. Microg has gotten so good, the vast majority of playstore apps work completely fine even without Google services, including things like my banking apps.
Feels liberating as fuck, not gonna lie.
Only apps that don’t work for me are ones that require IaP’s. About 30% of those I can crack with LuckyPatcher. I can also crack other paid apps with license protection.
Mostly I havent needed to do any of that though, because I’ve found that there are so many great open source apps that do the things I need.
LOL welcome to Samsung. This is why I stopped buying them after the S6.
I think there is an app called app install. Disable that shit
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Ah glad to see the jumping to conclusions and overreacting has made it’s way over from reddit.
As if a manufacturer hasn’t changed in around a decade and this user not sharing other facts like carrier, unlocked, country, phone model, etc.
This is why I install LineageOS on every new Android phone I buy. Currently rocking an S8. With the original software it’s really hard to use since the RAM is filling up fast. With LineageOS it’s still an awesome phone.
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Samsung made two different variants of the Galaxy S8 line - one with their own Exynos processors (the good one) and one with Qualcomm processors (the shitty ones).
Only Exynos devices have LineageOS. I guess that’s why they’re not listed as officially supported.
I currently run LOS 18.1 (based on Android 11) on my S8, it’s available here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/rom-signature-spoofing-microg-support-ota-updates-lineageos-18-1-for-s8-s8-note8.4332029/
The same developer also made newer releases already. It’s rock-solid and everything works.
For good camera support I recommend using IDans Gcam mod (Mod8.3b_IDan_v4.7_test2.apk). You can enable HDR and three different modes (Day, Night and Dark) as an overlay over the camera’s live view and the photo quality is mostly as good as stock, if not even better. It’s a bit buggy when trying to view the photos inside the camera app so I have to use the Gallery a lot, but that’s just a minor nuisance.
Happened to me too every time I update my Samsung J6
I wouldn’t be able to handle this. Been running GrapheneOS since last year, and I don’t think I could go back to anything else.
Actually started working on a GrapheneOS installation service called SwapMyOS that I think could be helpful to those who wanna install GrapheneOS but don’t how.
I kick a percentage back to GrapheneOS itself to keep the project funded and running (which is the primary motive behind the project).
Same lol, maybe a Linux phone one day so I don’t have to buy another Google phone but unless it runs all the same apps it’s unlikely
Try SailfishOS! Currently replying to you using it.
Sailfish OS does look interesting to be fair, I’ll for sure check it out when I need to get a new phone (hopefully not for a long time lol)
The only app I need to work on a linux phone is google maps. Although I haven’t checked how good openstreet map is now. Everything else has a linux alternative
I use public transport a lot and google maps is very helpful so unfortunately can’t live without it, last time I tried openstreet map it was useless for buses etc. As for alternative apps, I’m assuming I’d have trouble with, for example, banking apps, or obscure/niche apps such as my country’s one for booking public transport etc.? Just nice using something that can install all Android apps OOTB
Seems to work on my SailfishOS phone.
Do you know if it works with an S22?
GrapheneOS only runs on Pixel devices (including the Pixel tablet) because they’re the only ones that meet the strict security standards.
I know LineageOS supports some Samsung devices, but I didn’t see the S22 being supported.
Thanks.
It’s only for Pixel phones
Bummer. I guess I should start looking for a new phone.
What phone, if I may ask?
GrapheneOS only works on the Pixel line as of this writing.
Wow. Such thing never happened to me on my Samsung phone. What’s your model?
Wow. Such thing never happened to me on my Samsung phone. What’s your model?
What model + what country + did you get your phone subsidized by a carrier? Literally never had this happen on any of my multiple samsung phones.
Bought a Xiaomi phone, rooted it, loving it, so cheap and still private enough. I’ll just can’t get my head around in spending almost a grand for a freaking phone.
guess its carrier stuff?
I wish manufacturers didn’t allow carriers to install junk on their phone.
On the other hand, this is how carriers can give you a good deal on a phone… They have to subsidise it by making deals with the companies that make apps like these.
If they have to trick you by installing unwanted apps on your phone, where you don’t even know it’s them doing it, then it sounds more like a scam than a great deal.
I agree. That’s unfortunately how it is today though - either you pay full price for an unlocked phone (which some people can’t afford), or you get junk apps on it. You can usually disable the junk apps at least.
Yeah I have a Samsung phone and have never had this problem so I’m guessing it’s carrier stuff and op is unkowongly placing blame on the wrong company here
Proprietary software moment…
One of the many reasons I will only ever buy Pixel phones. No bloatware.
This is the main reason I’ve stuck with Nexus/Pixel. I’ve tried Samsung but everything on it is unwanted bloat. Amazing hardware screwed by bloat and duplicated apps. Shame.
I’m on a Pixel 4a right now running CalyxOS. I relly want to get a FairPhone next tho. Repairability is awesome
Thinking about making the jump to grapheneos, the only thing holding me back is my addiction to Android Auto
GrapheneOS is pretty damn great. But yes… Android Auto is something I do miss :(
Can you get away with MirrorLink? Truthfully I’ve never tried it, and I’m pretty sure it’s dead if not dying, but it was always going to be my fallback if I found a way to leave Google (or potentially Android entirely).
I agree. This is my work phone so I had no choice. My personal phone is the Pixel 5a.
I hate that. One of the reasons I dislike Samsung phones. Last phone from them was a Note 8 and unless they go back to a pure Android experience, I won’t get another. We know that isn’t happening any time soon.
Honestly I’m super over all our current choices. Im on an iPhone and while I like their privacy stuff slightly better than android, there are lots of things I don’t like.
I also hate how much metadata the big G snorts up. Even just the location data they retain is out of this world.
There just aren’t any options if you want something that doesn’t keep you boxed into a closed ecosystem or track every love you make.
You can get a Google pixel and sideload an operating system such as Grapheneos, and you won’t have to deal with any of Google’s bs spying. Highly recommend looking into it.
I recently made the switch and it’s great. Definitely takes a bit of understanding and research to know what you’re getting into, though.
I wanted to do that but need to use Google apps for work (specifically google chat won’t work).
You can run Google Play services on GrapheneOS it’s called Sanboxed Google Play. It allows you to run Play services as a normal app without any special privileges so you can install it without sacrificing all of your phones data to google. Should allow you to use pretty much all Google apps.
This isn’t enough for work apps that require Android Device Policy unfortunately. When I researched it in November I found that it would require too many permissions so GrapheneOS isn’t planning on supporting it.
Yeah. That’s what I’ve been looking into. I used to root and do roms and stuff. Back in the day I was pretty involved in the XDA community.
At that point why not just using Samsung phone and sideload the OS? Seems weird to do that on Pixel which has inferior hardware and good software (like its camera apps), and then remove the software
Simple reason being that there’s no notoriously good OS for Samsung phones.
Graphene is highly focused on not being annoying while keeping privacy intact. You can, for example, have Google Play Services, within a sandbox. Everything can be denied network access, or any access really, on a per app basis.
It also relies on Google’s security chip to keep the chain of trust intact. The boot sequence and your private keys are kept intact that way. Not everyone documents and opens their hardware as well as Google. Samsung is notoriously terrible and full of it when it comes to allowing you to do your own thing.
I recently just bought a pixel 6 and have been interested in Graphene OS, but would I lose features like live translate and the hold for me feature?
live translate
What is that? Google translate listening and translating live? Google lens translating images? Both work.
hold for me feature
No clue about what that is.
In general most things work just the same, and things that do not tend to be listed in the Graphene docs.
What about the fairphones? I was reading up on them and might get one. I like that they come with an android fork and open-source apps so you don’t have to deal with Google. Plus being fully repairable and sustainably-made. Does anyone have any experience with them?
The problem is getting one if you’re in North America…
Where are they originally? Would it be easier to get one in Europe?
I have a note 9 and i think its time to replace this piece of shit. It lasted like 2 years without problems and then “magically” is started to fail
They have officially come to the US recently: https://murena.com/america/shop/smartphones/brand-new/murena-fairphone-4/
But they’re in America now? https://murena.com/america/shop/smartphones/brand-new/murena-fairphone-4/
Good to know, thanks. Hopefully they’ll come to Canada soon too.
Apple’s biggest success is convincing people they care about your privacy.
It’s really frustrating because Samsung is basically the leader in Android phones right now.
I hope we get a bunch of new good options this year because I really need to upgrade and posts like this remind me why I don’t by Samsung.
wtf do you go with for a quality hardware android reasonably priced? LG got out of the phone game which sucks ass. Pixel can be great but they are all flagship prices. Samsung, while having horrible shit like this, is quality hardware and has lots of models under $200.
Is this a regional thing? None of my Samsung phones (Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S23) ever installed apps like these automatically. They did come with Microsoft apps bundled in, and I believe Facebook too, but after deactivating them they never came back. Never games though.
It is probably what they are allowed to do according to the law.
yes specifically a us or canadian carrier thing
My wife’s phone does this as well (Japan)
Ooh, it had to be them
Ah… So not a Samsung thing, but a carrier thing. I should have guessed, carriers are disgusting. Nowadays it’s rare where I live, but not so long ago they even got in the middle of Android updates and replaced the bootlogo with their own branding, I even know of some devices stuck on old Android versions because while the official release is available the carrier never bothered shipping the update.
I also dislike how SIM cards run independent from the main CPU and can spawn their little Java applets whenever they want, my carrier used to randomly display ads as full prompts that got in front of any other app with highest priority using the “SIM toolkit” feature of Android, which you can’t disable. Only stopped after I gave them a call claiming if I see another one of those I’d report them to the consumer rights watchdog from my region.
Holy shit. The only time I’d be ok with my carrier doing that would be if I didn’t have to pay them a single fucking dime. You don’t get to double dip, carriers. You’re already over charging for data use.
I’m pretty sure it’s a Samsung thing. I’m located in Sweden and they’ve done this on my unlocked (not locked to a specific operator) Samsung phones ( S5, S8, S20 and S20FE 5G).
Unlocked phones still have carrier bloat if you got them from a carrier
Not a thing in Sweden.
I also have a S20 FE and can attest to the bloatware they install with each software update.
I ordered mine directly from the manufacturer and it doesn’t install stuff. However, I also declined to agree to any of the Samsung ecosystem helper apps like the Store or Bixby.
I’d argue that it is a Samsung thing. They let carriers do this. Just like they host ads in the notification shade and first party apps in some markets.
To Samsung. One of the largest companies in the world. Samsung chooses to allow this because they get money for it from the carriers.
Exactly. Apple doesn’t allow it.
Let’s also not forget Samsung are the ones who give you the privilege of getting built-in ads on your expensive new TV. Ads and bloatware absolutely are part of Samsung’s business model.
Australian here. Never happened… yet
It’s illegal where I’m from and I imagine many other places. I assume OP is from the US where the voters tolerate this sort of stuff more.
Same thing here with s21 ultra on tmobile. Just went looking and have a bunch of samsung/tmobile/microsoft stuff built in but that’s about it. Have been asked I think once or twice with certain app store updates if I wanted to install game apps but declined them and haven’t seen any since.
edit- am US based
