Motorola and GrapheneOS announce long-term partnership
For several months, the maintainers of GrapheneOS, an alternative, security and privacy-focused version of Android, had been talking about a partnership with a major manufacturer. On Monday (2nd), at the Mobile Web Congress (MWC), we found out who the partner is: Motorola Mobility.
The press release is vague, but it contains encouraging information. According to Motorola, the partnership is a “long-term” one and the company and the GrapheneOS Foundation “will work to strengthen smartphone security and collaborate on future devices engineered with GrapheneOS compatibility.”
The article addresses two other new features, Moto Analytics, for the corporate market, and Private Image Data, a setting that removes metadata from photos, presumably more geared toward domestic consumers.
I say this because, at the beginning, Motorola announces “the addition of new consumer and enterprise solutions.” It would be a shame if GrapheneOS were restricted to corporate market — in some cases, these are not even sold at retail.
There are also questions about how GrapheneOS will be offered. “Devices designed to be compatible with GrapheneOS” can be interpreted as an aftermarket solution, where it is up to the consumer to swap Google's Android for GrapheneOS.
This would not be surprising given that it is the only way to get GrapheneOS today even though in a unnofficial manner. The OS is only compatible with Google's Pixel phones, which — obviously — come with company's Android pre-installed.
The good news is that the replacement process is very easy. It consists of connecting the phone to a computer via a USB-C cable, accessing this website from a Chromium-based browser, and clicking the buttons as they follow.
On the GrapheneOS Foundation side, the Mastodon profile linked to Motorola's statement saying that “we’re collaborating on future devices meeting our privacy and security standards with official GrapheneOS support.”
The news is encouraging, despite the lack of details, devices, and dates. (Motorola only says that more details will be revealed “in the coming months” as the partnership evolves.) GrapheneOS is considered the gold standard in terms of mobile OS privacy and security and is completely “degoogled,” but with Google Play Services (on which many popular apps depend) available in an isolated environment. There is a lot of material out there about this OS; I recommend this video from the Veronica Explains channel.