You can always add widgets if you want something to break up the gridded icons. π«‘ Welcome to the fam.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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Privacy
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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
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Which ones do ypu recommend?
- Breezy Weather
- ProgressBars (for displaying days until payday as a desktop icon)
- AnotherMonitor (to display remaining SSD space on an icon)
Breezy Weather is abs excellent. Perfectly functional but also looks beaut! Not something you often see in open source. Highly recommended!
Does anyone know if Google pay and banking apps from India (UPI) work on GOS? Pretty much impossible to live in an Indian city without these apps now
PhonePe works perfectly fine. Bhim UPI works sometimes but definitely needs play services and does not work on private profiles. Need to be installed in main profile.
Most apps will work with just sandboxed play services installed. But, If your app has implemented play integrity checks then you need play store installed, and you need to be logged in too. Only then you'll be able to use banking apps.
It really depends on the banking app, for example mine used google play store to download but doesnt need it to run at all (updates happen from it though). So i can run it on my main profile with GPS (google play store) disabled.
Protip - Download something like the Shelter app so you can set up a Work profile space and install the apps that need GPS to run n then this can be the space where you have these apps. Shelter has a really handy feature that lets you get notifications from these apps when on another profile n can send files between. Best of all you can pause the work space, basically stops all apps.
At the start i had quite a few GPS apps here but I've slowly using less n less. At the moment there are three apps there that I need for work but only rarely so really need to unpause that space like 2% of the time.
P.S - try and ensure the apps on your main profile are not downloaded from GPS/Aurora Store. You can check the app info to see which store you downloaded them from. If you can, get them from other stores (others have given good tips on those already) or their own websites/githubs. Basically want to have zero connected apps n can disable google play store n services on your main profile.
How do you take a picture of your phone?
With my AI nightmare camera glasses!
here we go again
I was there. I was there 3,000 years ago...
You have to be really, really fast. But it can be done. I find that if you can accurately speak in dial up tones to your phone, you should be able to snap a photo while youβre communicating with it.
Wait, how did you take a picture of you taking a picture of your phone?
i want it too. motorola, pls.
Are you saying, "Hello Moto?"
im still waiting for the linux phone of my dreams tbh
Graphene really is the next best thing. If you can get your hands on a used Pixel or splurge for a new one, you won't regret converting. At least until there's a production-ready gnuPhone
I don't really understand why Pixel is that evryone likes/they support.
I can't accept the fact that there is no external sd card support.
I believe I am getting old because I am very stuck on this point, even more than the headphone jack.
Nevermind I just saw Motorola is actually making a deal with gaphene OS. They were my next future phone with sd cards and even styluses- if this goes through, can't wait!
Pixels are the main target of aftermarket ROMs because they are reference Android devices with highly available unlocked developer modes. Most companies producing phones do things like add propriety changes that require substantial workarounds for relatively basic hardware functionality and make it much more difficult to even install an aftermarket ROM.
Really this is all a consequence of capitalism itself and the need to lock in ecosystems to establish controlled markets (allowing for controlling one's own profit). Every phone could be fully unlockable and hackable by the end user, but companies specifically prevent this in order to maximize their own profits.
Apple did a hell of a job teaching people that means itβs more fancy.
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I'd argue that Graphene is a better thing since it's based on an OS that's been designed for mobile from the ground up. I expect it's going to be a while before Linux UX on mobile catches up to desktop, but Graphene works great already.
Sad thing is that Linux used to be ahead on phones. Everyone swore by N900 and it was sabotaged by ms buykilling Nokia.
It would've been a cool world if we got Linux that could work seamlessly between desktop and mobile. Imagine if you had architecture where apps were built as services with an API, and then you could connect either desktop or mobile UI to them. Heck, at that point you could even make custom UIs across apps, or pipe them together the way you do with shell scripts. And then you could also have a device like a phone which has all your apps and data, and you could plug it into a dock with more memory, GPU, etc. So, you wouldn't have to juggle a bunch of devices and sync data between them.
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The Pinephone was a fun expiriment. I want that pinboard switch on other devices, but the linux dev/update cycle is very unconducive to the needs of most daily drivers.
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Is that... chrome... I see in shortcuts?
It's Vanadium, chromium based but hardened. It's part of the default app lineup for GOS
It's really easy. I installed dirty unicorns and a few others onto an Android phone years ago and had to install a program and follow a bunch of steps, adb, etc. GrapheneOS can be installed from a browser using another phone or tablet with each step basically a button on the site. I was a little surprised how simple it was.
Yeah I installed Graphene years ago on an old Pixel 4a and I remember it being a bit of a process. But I just got a new Pixel a couple of weeks ago and I was surprised how easy it is now.
Cheers mate. I'm running GrapheneOS on my Pixel 9a.
Welcome to the fold!
Just a heads up, GOS doesn't recommend the F-droid app as apparently there's some security concerns. SideOfBurritos on YouTube talks more about it. An app like Droidify or Neo Store would be better and still uses the same F-Droid repositories. I use and really like Obtanium which allows you to download and manage apps directly from their websites, GitHub, F-Droid, & more.
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Welcome ! Quick tip: Google has a database of cell towers that helps getting a location quickly and helps starting the GPS connection even indoors.
You don't have that on GOS. So when you use localization with organic maps, you'll notice it struggle to find you. You have to have a clear view to the sky to get a ping and then you can use it inside your car for example.
I also use https://github.com/barbeau/gpstest to get the ping more quickly.
GrapheneOS has some services of its own that improve location speed and accuracy when enabled: SUPL and PSDS. They're both implemented in ways that try to preserve privacy. See here for more info:
https://grapheneos.org/faq#default-connections
With these enabled, it's usually quick to get your precise location.
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