It is once again me, the guy who built a GrapheneOS "Lapdock" a few months back and made countless versions since. I utilize a feature called "Desktop Mode" that can be enabled in developer settings for Google Pixel 8 and later.
By connecting your phone via USB C you can get a desktop like experience on an external screen, while simultaneously supplying power to the phone through a power bank connected to the screen. Add a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and you get a DIY Laptop that's genuinly better and more capable than most cheap Laptops (looking at you, Chromebooks).
Anyway, go check out my Youtube video (https://youtu.be/kA4Y8LVgLII) for further information and thanks for the support this far!

I build a handful of privacy apps for GrapheneOS in my spare time, and this week the main one got some real security work, so I figured I'd share.

Parakeet is my fork of Molly. Molly hasn't had a release since July and is still on Signal 8.19.2, so I started pulling Signal's security fixes in myself. The big one was the RingRTC hot mic bug (CVE-2026-113380), where someone on a call could keep your mic on after you hang up. Molly still ships the vulnerable version, so I rebuilt their RingRTC with Signal's fix. I also backported 19 of Signal's other hardening commits from 8.19.2 to 8.33.1, mostly stricter checks on images, attachments, mentions and call messages. On top of that it has no Google push, screen security always on, and disappearing messages by default. It's still 8.19.2 underneath, so no new Signal features, just the fixes. It syncs with Molly every 6 hours and drops each patch once Molly catches up.

The other stuff, if any of it's useful to you:

Holevad VPN is my fork of the open-source Mullvad app with on-device tracker and SDK domain blocking added. DAITA still works.

Dodo Bird identifies birds by their songs and calls, fully offline with no internet permission, around 10,000 species with pictures. Built on BirdNET Live.

HawkEye logs every plane that flies over you, pings you as it passes, and ranks the regulars. Built on the airplanes.live app.

Everything's free and open source, and you can keep it updated with Obtainium or ObtainX: https://gitlab.com/LionNest

None of it is affiliated with Signal, Molly, Mullvad or the original projects. Happy to answer questions or hear if something breaks.

Now it's time to set it up a little...

I got tired of Aurora Store telling me apps were "not available in your country" when I'm sitting in the country they're made for, so I dug into why and made a fork that deals with it.

The short version: when you use Aurora anonymously, Google decides your country from the shared anonymous account Aurora hands you, not from your IP or VPN. Aurora picks one of those accounts and if it happens to be from the wrong country, region-locked apps (banking apps, some betting apps like Kalshi or Novig, etc.) just fail. Changing your VPN doesn't help.

What Aurora Light does differently:

- When an app says "not available in your country", it keeps pulling fresh anonymous sessions (up to 10, spaced out so the token server doesn't throw "server busy") until it gets one from the right country

- It remembers the session that worked for that app and uses it first for installs and updates, so next time it just works on the first tap. If that session expires it forgets it and hunts again on its own

- Upstream picks one token dispenser at random and gives up on the first error. This tries the others before failing

- It sends your phone's real time zone and carrier code to Google. Upstream sends a fixed Hawaii time zone and a broken carrier code, which doesn't help with country checks

- Anonymous only. No Google sign-in at all, so there's no account to get banned

- One tap to route it through Orbot on the default SOCKS port

- Updates come from GitLab releases through Obtainium/ObtainX, not Aurora's own update feed

It's not magic: it can only find a right-country session if one exists in the anonymous pool, so some apps might still need a few tries. But for me it went from "never works" to "works on the first tap after the first time."

It's built on Aurora Store 4.8.4 and I check for new Aurora releases every week to merge their fixes in. Big credit to the Aurora team, this is their app with some changes on top, and it's not affiliated with them.

https://gitlab.com/LionNest/aurora-light

Happy to answer questions, and let me know if a region-locked app still won't install for you.

I bought an open box Pixel 10 Fold. It was marked in excellent condition. When I looked at it, it seemed like someone just opened it, didn’t like it and returned it. No signs of wear! Installed graphene on it and it’s been great. Haven’t been able to find much content online about GOS on a fold. What are some of your fav apps or setting changes on a fold?

I finally got my phone set up in a correct way...I was disgust by Google account for years. The really break through is today. Because grapheneo. It respects my privacies.Makes me feel clean about the INTERNET. OMG.I love it.Words can't express my happiness. I hope China someday will create something like this.

Do you know what device listed in my device when I try sign in on my google using vanadium on graphene os?

Hey,

I don't think it shows quite as well on video but since the latest update my how launcher is very jittery, it's not very pleasant! No big deal, if it annoys me too much I'll change to lawnchair or smtg, but I just wanted to know if someone else has this?

I'm on Pixel 10.

Thanks!

I like writing stories on my phone and I'm looking for the perfect app. I tried markleaf, but it has very frustrating quirks like when I go to fix a typo it deletes the whole word or inserts my fix 3 paragraph away. I tried pocket prose as well but when I opened it tonight, everything I wrote yesterday got deleted.

I tried installing google docs but that crashes on start up.

Any recommendations?

For some reason on google maps i can get directions and everything as long as i put in a starting location and the ending location.

However when i use my location as the starting point in google maps, it doesn't work.

How do i fix that in grapheneos?

Apologies if this isn't appropriate for this subreddit.

I'll have some money soon and I want an in box/sealed Pixel 10a or Pixel 10 Pro XL if I can find a deal.

I know you can get really good deals when you get your phone from a cellular provider but those phones typically have locked boot loaders. are there carrier's in the US that sell unlocked phones?

If I purchase a phone and it comes with an Esim already installed, what happens to the Esim if you install GOS?

GmsCompatConfig version 178 released:

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/platform_packages_apps_GmsCompat/releases/tag/config-178

See the linked release notes for a summary of the improvements over the previous release and a link to the full changelog.

Forum discussion thread:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/43045-gmscompatconfig-version-178-released

I've been having an issue with my IVPN and I'm not sure if its GrapheneOS or IVPN related, I have the "Bypass VPN for local networks" toggle enabled, yet it still won't let me access my local network if I have androids "Block connections without VPN" enabled. This pairing used to work, allowing IVPN to decide what happens with local traffic instead of the OS.
I have found a similar reported issue on the IVPN github however its gone stale and been closed.

Any help is appreciated

Having witnessed a few of the bot-farm videos of late, where unscrupulous individuals orchestrate clicks from myriad phones to boost engagement, it got me wondering about whether such technology could be used to drive those apps that refuse to work without strict Google Play integration.

I continue to turn to my old Pixel device for a very small number of activities, it comes out of my bag, is powered up, an app is opened, I do my thing and power it off again. It's a compromise I'm willing to make as 99% of my other activities work fine in Graphene.

But what if I could strip an installation of Android right down, side-load some software and have my Graphene phone drive it remotely, allowing it to be little more than a brain in a jar which does my bidding on a very small number of activities.

Could it be another useful tool in the toolbox?

I'm aware that such ideas often attract ire, so please form an orderly queue behind the gun-sight and let me have it.

Best wishes.

I've got a bit of an annoying situation. A few clients I deal with use Kibu for verified contacts and private communication. They want me to join so we can keep everything in one place. Problem is I'm running GrapheneOS on my Pixel and have no plans to switch back to stock Android just for one app.

The clients aren't interested in changing platforms either. Apparently Kibu is what they've settled on for their trusted contacts. I haven't been able to confirm whether it works with GrapheneOS or if it depends on Google Play Services for things like notifications and identity verification.

Does it work with sandboxed Google Play or are there issues with device verification and biometrics?

I'd rather figure this out before agreeing to use it for client communication.

I love GOS except the gallery sucks lol. I hope there's an update to improve this. Any recommendations? The apps I've tried arent great either looking for something similar to native Samsung galaxy gallery

When I switch user The screen is like have a clutch. And jumping abnormal.And what's more.I didn't install google service on my main profile,but I surprise find it in my main profile. And I unstalled it instantly.

Hey all, just seeking help with installing an E Sim on my pixel 6 pro with Graphene as when I go to settings the Sims setting is greyed out and when I go to setup or transfer E Sim it gives me a message saying I'm offline and must connect to wifi.

I am planning to move to a pixel soon, was at first thinking 10 since its the one with the latest support but now i have decided to get the pixel 11

Is there confirmation that Graphene will give support to 11 or no?

My previous post about moving from Iphone to GOS https://www.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/s/jPxpuzdFt9

Note this is a review from my personal preferences, which doesn't reflect the full powerful potential of the GOS.

My preferences: 1- Anti-Google as much as possible. 2- No app if it's working fine from the browser. 3- Open and free software is the first choice always. 4- I have no social media except Reddit and another one. 5- I have no reels, shorts, or videos doom-scrolling accounts, so I don't know about any config related to them.

Also, I'm self-hosting too many things, so my user experience revolves more around privacy.

For applications: I tried Etar + DAVx5 for Calendar, but Etar wasn't good enough. I was trying to import an ICS file with multiple events, and it shows just the first occurrence. I tried Fossify Calendar, and it's working totally fine.

For ebooks, I'm using MJ PDF. It's a really powerful choice for reading and editing PDF files. I also discovered Episteme, which is very modern and compatible with different ebook formats.

Also, one of the best discoveries was the offline translator. I didn't believe how efficient it is! Very rich dictionaries, and photo scanning and translation! I love it 🌸

For the notes, I was kinda disappointed, as Joplin isn't working fine with me at all. I searched and tried Notally, which is working fine; so simple, no noise.

For the file management, I tried to stick to the default Files app, but it was very slow. I was trying to delete some files, and they didn't disappear; then after some time I didn't find them. I was so confused! I tried Material Files, which is working just fine and it's simple.

About the system itself, I like it! I was an Apple user, so that's kinda new to me, but compared to what I expected, this is way better. The system is too simple, which is the best thing. No Google noise, no weird apps attached to the system. I can control every permission for every app, and I can control which exact folder is allowed to be accessed for every app. Vanadium is really secure! I love it, and I'm using it alongside IronFox. The way of controlling everything is going well with me. The normal usage is very smooth; too many places to customize and personalize, but that seems like a beautiful rabbit hole 🌸

There are only two things bothering me: the gallery and the camera. For the gallery, I'm using Immich for connecting to my self-hosted phototo connect drive, and the photos already appear in the gallery, and I can find them, but when I try to upload a photo or assign it to the contacts, I can't see the date-time order at all! It's ordered in Immich but not in the Immich folder in the gallery. I don't know how to solve this. Also, I noticed when I tried to assign a photo for a contact that it's rotated 90° and there's no way to correct the rotation.

The Camera app seems like it's not using the full potential of the camera hardware compared to using the original Pixel app. I tried the Open Camera app, but the strange thing is it was worse than the default camera app 🥲

I'm still discovering those two points and trying to find a solution for them.

Also I wasn't able to enable Contactless Paying from Paypal 🥲🥲 It needs google services for enabling it which is very sad.

One last thing, I stopped using my iPhone completely after just 1 day of getting my new pixel with GOS which help me a lot for migrate completly and solve any blocker.

I was looking for a way to prevent my phone from using 5g since the signal strength inside the old building I work in is really bad, but the LTE signal strength is decent enough to serve my purposes. But it's always flipping back and forth between the two as it catches a hint of the 5g network for a moment, which makes it very difficult to reliably use the internet while I'm inside.

A Google search shows that there's supposed to be an LTE Only mode under Settings > Network & internet > SIMs > SIM > Preferred network type. However I don't have a sub menu for SIMs, possibly because I have an ESIM. Is there no other way to access this feature?

EDIT: Had a total braindead moment, was trying to access those options while under a secondary profile. Logged in to the primary profile and viola, there they are. Thanks everyone, just gonna go sit in a corner and think about my life for a while haha

...can admin put a stop to the "omg i installed the OS - X days with Graphene 🥳" posts / pictures.

If you dont have anything of value to post, dont post at all, you're only distracting your fellow man with more slop, for no reason other than to draw attention to yourself, which is absolutely ironic considering the topic of discussion here.