GrapheneOS on Pixels getting extended Android support

The title is ambiguous. It might sound like it is about

> "GrapheneOS on Pixels" getting "extended Android support"

But it is really about

> GrapheneOS (commenting) on "Pixels getting extended Android support"

mkeedlinger · 9 months ago

Thanks, your disambiguation helped me

izacus · 9 months ago

Yeah, I'd call this kind of title outright misleading. Graphene is getting longer support because Google will support the phones for longer.

sourraspberry · 9 months ago

Also - it's an extension of OS updates but these phones were already getting security updates for the same period.

Example: Previously, Pixel 6 was to receive 3 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates. Now it will receive 5 years of both.

It’s great that Google is extending the support, and that GrapheneOS can benefit from it.

I bought a Pixel 4a specifically for installing GrapheneOS. I used it happily for almost 3 years, until EOL firmware support. The phone worked fine, but I wanted the reassurance of firmware security updates.

I was going to get a Pixel 6/7 (I forget which was available at the time) to use GrapheneOS again, but I was so annoyed at Google for only supporting firmware for 3 years, that I decided to switch to an iPhone SE.

Shortly after this, I believe the next Pixel came out with 5+ years support. I had some regret, but the iPhone SE is OK, and I didn’t want to buy a new phone just for the sake of it.

I will probably switch back to GrapheneOS for my next phone, as it really is a great mobile OS. Hopefully the project is still going strong by then.

Caligatio · 9 months ago

As a point of clarification: all Pixel phones starting with the 6 were guaranteed 5 years of firmware support. Some phones only had 3 years of OS upgrades (vs 5 years of security patches). Now everything is getting 5 years of OS upgrades.