GrapheneOS statement on Mastodon: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114661914197695338
Calyx made an official statement on this development here: https://calyxos.org/news/2025/06/11/android-16-plans/
Concerning stuff. Hopefully a workaround or solution is found at some point, but if not, I’m already thinking of how to manage without them.
I can’t see myself going back to a standard Android phone, so I suppose worse case scenario, I’d have to settle with LineageOS, or potentially abandon Android altogether and see if I can manage with discrete separate devices to fulfill the same needs, such as:
- a pocketable mini-Linux PC like a MNT Pocket Reform, which has the ability to use cellular networks. Should be able to text, browse web, and maybe GPS? Alternatively, perhaps the Mecha Comet?
- Small pocket-able dumb camera
- MP3 player
- Dumb-phone kept in a faraday bag when not in use?
EDIT:
Update on the situation from GrapheneOS in this thread (using Redlib, a proxy of Reddit)
The biggest problem for GrapheneOS is not the change to AOSP but rather our lead developer since 2022 being forcibly conscripted to fight in a war in April. That’s why we’ve been asking for help since April.
In April, we were contacted by someone about upcoming changes to AOSP impacting us including the removal of device support in Android 16. We talked about it internally but didn’t know if the information was credible. We prepared as much as we could for the Android 16 port but didn’t know exactly what would happen with device support. If we had clearer information on it and knew it was accurate, we could have prepared much more in advanced.
Porting to Android 16 is required to continue shipping full Android privacy/security patches regardless of device. Only the latest stable release gets full privacy/security patches, which was the May release of Android 15 QPR2 and is not Android 16. Older releases only get backports.
Pixels also only have their driver and firmware patches for Android 16, although we’re working on a release within the next 24 hours with backports of the most important firmware patches. We would normally have an experimental Android 16 release out already, if they hadn’t made changes to AOSP.
There are further changes coming to AOSP. It is not only what is talked about there.
In another comment:
We’re going to be continuing GrapheneOS but in the long term we’ll need to shift to our own devices with an OEM partner.
It’s not only Pixels which are going to be impacted. Pixels are still the only devices meeting our hardware requirements (https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices). It’s clear we need our own hardware in partnership with an OEM that’s serious about security and capable of delivering on it. We’ve had several attempts at OEM partnerships but they were unable to provide what we needed. It will cost millions of dollars to get a device meeting our basic requirements. We can do that, but we hoped for an OEM wanting to work with us instead of us needing to pay for everything through raising funds. We didn’t end up finding a good OEM to work with that way so we’ll do it the hard way.
Google can suck my fat fucking graphenis
I think it was optimistic to think that GrapheneOS would survive long term while the only phones they worked with was made by, you know, Google. I understand their security requirements and respect that they did not make exceptions to be able to work with other devices, but I hope they now change their approach to this considering the alternative.
For fucks sake. Got me a pixel not even a year ago especially for Graphene -_-
Yup. My pixel arrived 2 weeks ago. Just loaded Graphene last week. Haven’t even put the sim card in it yet. FFS
I just switched phones and I specifically gave up on my wish for GrapheneOS seeing it all but married to the Pixel line. I get that Pixels were popular but this was just a terrible decision on their part given the goal of GrapheneOS overall…
Honestly, this is like rallying against Toyota by only buying Corollas
Its not about popularity. to be frank, the performance of Pixels is mediocre at best. It is neither particularly fast, nor does it have a particularly long battery life, nor is it overly stylish.
The strength lies in the dedicated security hardware and the fact that you can re-lock the bootloader, which is extremely rare. plus 7 to 10 years support with updates.
In terms of privacy and security the combination of Pixel Hardware and GrapheneOS Software could be considered the holy grail. There is just no other hardware right now that comes even close.
There’s technical reasons Graphene went with Pixel - it’s the only phone with the security hardware required for their security direction.
The biggest problem for GrapheneOS is not the change to AOSP but rather our lead developer since 2022 being forcibly conscripted to fight in a war in April.
Is the lead developer ukrainian?
edit Answering my own question, yes: https://dev.ua/en/news/mobilizatsiia-v-grapheneos-1745408138
And apparently one of, if not the lead dev for GrapheneOS was conscripted, so they’re working w/ less experienced devs to prep Android 16 w/ GrapheneOS changes.
Fuck Russia.
So if not a Pixel, what’s the best phone to get (if you don’t have $500 for a FairPhone)?
Graphene supports Fairphone?
I’m asking about the best choice for a privacy-respecting phone in general, not necessarily one running GrapheneOS.
Should’ve built upon straight Linux rather than Android.
This would mean that all the necessary drivers for the entire hardware would have to be recreated by reverse engineering. that would take years until you have an even halfway working device.
In the end, you have to poke around randomly in the hardware until at some point a light goes on somewhere. and so on. takes freaking forever. some devices don’t have working support after a decade and more of work.
…for the entire hardware…
Referring to Pixel hardware? I also don’t think they should be building on top of Pixels.
…would take years until you have an even halfway working device.
PostmarketOS seems to support many devices. So its doable. I would prioritize something like the Pinephone though.
PostmarketOS seems to support many devices
3 devices. They support 3 devices under the “main” branch. And those are not even real devices but emulated on PC.
Every single smartphone they support falls under the “community” branch. that means it was made available by volunteers in their free time. some will never see further updates after getting them to work once.
And the list looks like this:
Release Year Name Missing / Broken or not tested Features 2021 Fairphone 4 Battery Status / charging, Wifi, Audio, Camera, GPS, NFC 2021 PinePhone Pro Partial Battery Status, Camera, SMS, Calls, USB-OTG 2020 PINE64 PinePhone Camera 2020 Purism Librem 5 Camera and so on. there is none newer then 2021 and then it goes very fast down to 2012. see yourself: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices#Phones
It does run on many phones, but e.g. support for Camera is very very rare because that is one thing you most of the time only get a binary blob for as driver and not the source code. and it is a god damn nightmare to get those things working.
Okay, let’s say GrapheneOS is dead. That was a nice 10 years, so I’ve not kept up to this scene.
What’s the next best thing left standing? LineageOS?
I think you’re missing the point. If this is confirmed as a policy change, it’s not GrapheneOS that’s dead… It’s the Pixel as a mod-friendly device. And of course GrapheneOS runs only on that.
So the first thing you need to ask yourself is what’s the next best device. I have a Fairphone, I like it, they are extremely supportive of the community (so far as to help porting PostmarketOS on 10 years old phones). Then you decide which Android ROM is the best. CalyxOS for instance sounds pretty good.
Using a Fairphone does include a few compromises in terms of security compared to a Pixel. How important that is to you is something you’ll have to decide.
For me it’s pretty fine. If, like almost everyone around here, you are a human rights activist in Iran. Then maybe you should just keep running GrapheneOS on you Pixel with Android 15 for a few more years.
Hopefully within a couple years we sort this mess out, and a new reference device emerges with a hardware security features that are not too much of a step down from the Pixels.
Which is why we need to be pushing for Linux OS for mobile & methods to get them installed.
E.g: There’s no PostMarketOS g UbuntuTouch for pixel 4, 4XL & 4a
We also need apps
Problem with phones is all the components have embedded firmwares, acting like small undocumented computers. This is a whole layer of cluster-fuckery for documenting drivers. You can check how for example the MS Surface has rather good Linux support…Except for the wencam, which has an intel module directly controlling the sensor, which is completely undocumented. Result -> ANy of these newer laptops have non-existent camera support. Imagine the same but not just the camera, but the GSM modem, the wifi, the storage adapter, NFC module, the battery…
I’m ignorant on the matter: why is it happening? Isn’t Android open source?
The Calyx statement explains it.
Google released the Android Open Source Project code for this new version of their OS, but not device-specific code for the new Pixel models. GrapheneOS targets only Pixel devices, so they cannot continue development without access to that code, at least not as they have been so far.
Link says it: “On June 10th, Google released Android 16 to AOSP - but without Pixel device-specific source code.”
And
“Why Android 16 is different
Android 16 was released to AOSP yesterday but with a one big difference than typical releases:
Google did not publish any device-specific source code for supported, modern Pixel devices. In previous years, Google released full device trees alongside new Android versions. This allowed developers to build and boot AOSP on Pixel hardware relatively easily. With Android 16, only the platform/framework code has been released. The device trees are missing, at least for now. This means AOSP 16 cannot currently be built or run on any recent Pixel device easily just using official source.”
This is such a stupid decision…
Why did you focus on the bad news and not the good OP? They mention that they’ll have to ramp up development on a GrapheneOS device. About time.
If you mean when they say:
Having our own devices meeting our hardware requirements (https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices) would reduce the time pressure to migrate to new releases and could be used to obtain early access ourselves. Based on talks with OEMs, paying for what we need will cost millions of dollars.
I don’t think they’re saying that they will, they’re pointing out how expensive it would be to do so(I.E, unlikely as they do not have the funds to do it).Further down they clarify when someone asks what they mean by a GrapheneOS device:
Working with an OEM partner to make devices built to run GrapheneOS. We have a list of hardware requirements at https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices which are provided by the currently supported devices (Pixels). It would be very hard to make new devices meeting our requirements. We would need the community to raise a substantial amount of money in advance by preordering devices. We would need to incorporate substantial costs for development and long term support into the device cost.
Edit:
I was wrong! Graphene has clarified that they will, in fact, pursue creating their own hardware. Check main OP for details.
Which is great news!
But they’ll need a new, professional leadership team to make this happen.
There are many stories of the terrible experience with the Graphene team - I took those stories with a grain of salt until I had the same experience with them with my very first contact with the team - as in within 2 minutes. It was like dealing with Nick Burns on SNL, only worse.
That’s a major issue that will require a strong leadership team to keep doing what they do best: building an OS, and not interacting with us plebeians.
Yeah they really need better PR. They have a strong persecution complex and lash out at everyone. It’s worse than normal Linux distro flame wars
