I’ve used graphene for over a year, and it’s been solid. If you have the sandboxed Google play installed all apps will work fine, and as long as you don’t rely on heavily commercialized apps everything will likely work without play services as well (sans push notifications for apps that rely on firebase). RCS will work if you have Gplay services and the carrier services app installed.

One in a while there will be a slight hiccup in the UI, but I’ve experienced far worse on stock android, so I’m assuming it’s normal operating stutters. All in all it’s very reliable.

If anyone saw a guy named AnonymouseJoker posting on any thread about GrapheneOS and criticize it, please ignore. What he is doing is spreading misinformation about an operating system that take a true approach to security. So CIA agents aka “journalists” will not find out a secure operating system to use, and then their phone can explode whenever the Chinese government want.

I wrote about battery drain in response to another user who had issues on Graphene, even though this is a general Pixel issue, and has nothing to do with Graphene. The modem chews through the battery if you don’t have good connectivity, although I’m not sure if that’s still a big problem with the 7’s and 8s. It definitely is with the 6.

Personally, I had problems with adapting to the “don’t try to be a power user” philosophy of Graphene. I was used to flashing ROMs, rooting and customizing the hell out of my previous smartphones. Then I suddenly had a device which just… worked. It’s still an odd feeling, but I got used to it.

Just wanted to add to the other users unique experiences. From the perspective of someone who was a “the only good phone is a phone which is one small mishap away from being bricked” kinda guy