An internal Motorola presentation leak appears to confirm a GrapheneOS partnership for non-Pixel hardware, with an official announcement likely at MWC 2026.
As an iPhone user from the 3G days, this is legitimately interesting to me. I love the form factor of the modern Razr flip-phones, and having access to a privacy-focused OS like Graphene might just tip me over the edge.
Anyone with first-hand experience, how’s Graphene OS with banking apps?
Banking and finance is the one area where Graphene falls over for me in the UK, on a Pixel 9.
In short, my bank’s app - Lloyds - doesn’t work on Graphene. At all. I have Play Services sandboxed, and I’ve tried all the tricks, but nope. No dice. The website works in the browser just fine, but is kind of a pain in the arse to have to manually log in to whenever I want to use it.
And, as with all Graphene phones regardless of bank, Wallet does not allow registration of any payment cards. Neither my credit nor debit cards work. Store reward cards do though, so that’s something.
Workarounds for me are currently:
a Monzo card registered with my Garmin watch,
my bank card saved in the Lidl app, which can be used for payments
a magsafe wallet that holds my debit card
I’m led to believe that the Curve app can be used for contactless payments, however, I somehow failed the ID check when I tried to register with them, and their customer service is APPALLING. It’s been five months, and I’m still no closer to actually getting hold of anyone who might be able to help. Also, Curve was recently bought by Lloyds, so it seems likely that that option will be closed in the foreseeable future.
Ultimately though, it’s fine, and the benefits outweigh those few drawbacks.
The only trouble with the website (my bank’s website at least) is that you have to input a passcode, then a secret password, THEN it’ll send a 2FA SMS for me to put in a third code. Yay for security, but I’d love to be able to login with my thumbprint.
It annoyed me at first but it really doesn’t matter because the eBay website works fine. It’s just some companies choosing to use Google’s API to check OS integrity. It’s supposed to be a security check to make sure core components haven’t been hacked, but of course Google makes their API returns a “no” if your version of Android doesn’t let them run all their spyware.
I haven’t had any trouble with banking apps. One gives me a warning but allows me to continue. Google Wallet doesn’t work for payments but that is just fine with me.
It runs fine on my Pixel 7a, I have an account with 2 Brazilian banks and they all work well.
Some apps just don’t work though, but they are far and between, an example is Brazil’s gov.br, which is a website that is used for ID confirmation on everything that pertains to the government (tax revenue, your own business details,etc.). But then an old phone does that job for me at home.
Speaking of Brazil, it is worth mentioning that Google Pixels are not officially sold here. The ones I did obtain I bought on a “Brazilian eBay” and there is no e-SIM support for it nor any warranty services. I had to do the battery replacement myself despite knowing that Google was offering to fix faulty Pixel 7a’s on NA/India/Europe/etc. I am only bringing this up because, coincidentally, 50% of Motorola’s smartphone sales are on LATAM. It’s a pretty smart move they are making if you ask me, they are aware they could explore this huge market it seems.
As an iPhone user from the 3G days, this is legitimately interesting to me. I love the form factor of the modern Razr flip-phones, and having access to a privacy-focused OS like Graphene might just tip me over the edge.
Anyone with first-hand experience, how’s Graphene OS with banking apps?
Banking and finance is the one area where Graphene falls over for me in the UK, on a Pixel 9.
In short, my bank’s app - Lloyds - doesn’t work on Graphene. At all. I have Play Services sandboxed, and I’ve tried all the tricks, but nope. No dice. The website works in the browser just fine, but is kind of a pain in the arse to have to manually log in to whenever I want to use it.
And, as with all Graphene phones regardless of bank, Wallet does not allow registration of any payment cards. Neither my credit nor debit cards work. Store reward cards do though, so that’s something.
Workarounds for me are currently:
I’m led to believe that the Curve app can be used for contactless payments, however, I somehow failed the ID check when I tried to register with them, and their customer service is APPALLING. It’s been five months, and I’m still no closer to actually getting hold of anyone who might be able to help. Also, Curve was recently bought by Lloyds, so it seems likely that that option will be closed in the foreseeable future.
Ultimately though, it’s fine, and the benefits outweigh those few drawbacks.
My bank’s app won’t run on my Pixel 8 Pro with GrapheneOS. Most apps run fine. It’s pretty much just the bank app and eBay that refuse to run.
My bank has a website. Nothing needs to be an app. Fuck apps with a rake.
The only trouble with the website (my bank’s website at least) is that you have to input a passcode, then a secret password, THEN it’ll send a 2FA SMS for me to put in a third code. Yay for security, but I’d love to be able to login with my thumbprint.
Oh damn, why doesn’t eBay work? It’s not a deal-breaker, but it is an app I use with some regularity.
It annoyed me at first but it really doesn’t matter because the eBay website works fine. It’s just some companies choosing to use Google’s API to check OS integrity. It’s supposed to be a security check to make sure core components haven’t been hacked, but of course Google makes their API returns a “no” if your version of Android doesn’t let them run all their spyware.
I haven’t had any trouble with banking apps. One gives me a warning but allows me to continue. Google Wallet doesn’t work for payments but that is just fine with me.
Is that the equivalent of Apple Pay? That’s pretty ubiquitous here in Australia.
It runs fine on my Pixel 7a, I have an account with 2 Brazilian banks and they all work well.
Some apps just don’t work though, but they are far and between, an example is Brazil’s gov.br, which is a website that is used for ID confirmation on everything that pertains to the government (tax revenue, your own business details,etc.). But then an old phone does that job for me at home.
Speaking of Brazil, it is worth mentioning that Google Pixels are not officially sold here. The ones I did obtain I bought on a “Brazilian eBay” and there is no e-SIM support for it nor any warranty services. I had to do the battery replacement myself despite knowing that Google was offering to fix faulty Pixel 7a’s on NA/India/Europe/etc. I am only bringing this up because, coincidentally, 50% of Motorola’s smartphone sales are on LATAM. It’s a pretty smart move they are making if you ask me, they are aware they could explore this huge market it seems.
what is this brazillian ebay? I am struggling to find good ecommerce stores here in latam
oh I apologize, I should have just used it’s correct name: Mercado Livre/Libre. It’s pretty huge here.
And not just in Brazil! I think Perú and Chile are also big on MercadoLibre.