Switched to GrapheneOS with the Pixel 5.
Email/Calendar integration works fine (K-9 Mail).
Signal as instant messenger.
Organic Maps as Map application.
Replaced Apple Watch with GadgetBridge and a Mi 6 band (cheaper and I have easy access to all data, you need to sync once with their app after you get the key you can delete it ... did the setup on the iphone and copied out the key with a commandline python script from github).
Syncthing is amazing (local sync of audio books, camera images).
AntennaPod is equally amazing as a podcast client (I prefer it to overcast switching from the iPhone).
Other apps I'm using regularly: AnkiDroid
So far so good, not having the Google Services seemed ok, except:
1. still in search for good camera application, recommendations welcome.
2. a replacement of Reeder as an RSS reader (so far have not found a solution that works for me).
Yet, just started programming for it a bit and have to say I love flutter. It's pretty polished (and great for my needs).
You can use Google's camera application, which is optimized for the Pixels of course. I think it will probably work with the new sandboxed play services implementation, but there is a simpler way:
https://github.com/lukaspieper/Gcam-Services-Provider
This is a stub implementation of what gcam needs and it works great. I believe, independent of sandboxed play services, GrapheneOS team plans to implement stub play services like this for all parts, not just those required by gcam.
I downloaded the latest Google Camera from APK mirror and turned off all network access in Datura Firewall (comes with CalyxOS). This is a pretty common recommendation on /r/CalyxOS. Another recommendation I've seen and wish I'd done is to extract Google Camera's APK from your stock Android via adb before you flash Calyx, thus avoiding APK mirror.
Only trouble is after you take a picture and tap the thumbnail to view it immediately, it wants to open it in Google Photos and that is apparently not configurable. Simple enough solution - downloaded Google Photos from Aurora and blocked all network access just like Google Camera. Most stuff in Google Photos doesn't work but it's fine for a local gallery viewer.
From what I gather no other camera app will even come close as the Pixel series works closely with the Google Camera app to bring software optimizations to the photos that specific camera module takes.
I wrote a PWA for reading RSS feeds. It works fully offline and should be installable in Chromium based browsers (I develop in Firefox, but Chromium definitely has better PWA support).
Sorry, this was a bit out of context.
As the other commenter assumed, it is for replacing/extending the functionality of the phone.
For example, I wanted to access the heartrate and other mi band data and it's quite easy with gadgetbridge and my own flutter app.
I tried similar apps before with SwiftUI and the Apple Watch and it was pretty much a disaster (although I have working knowledge of objective C ...). Dart came easy and flutter seems super powerful to me ( I just re-implemented my first very simple ios game in just a day. that's the objective c version https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blanks/id286883373 ). Will publish/open-source the other one, when it's polished.
It uses Android's. It works like a regular Android smartphone, you enable Developer Mode + USB debugging. Android Studio recognizes the phone and complies /runs your application.
My favourite thing about the pixel 5 is the camera. I understand that they do a fair amount of software processing to make it so good. And most other apps don't let me use the wide lens. Is the experience as good on Graphene?
You can use Google's camera application, which is optimized for the Pixels of course. I think it will probably work with the new sandboxed play services implementation, but there is a simpler way:
https://github.com/lukaspieper/Gcam-Services-Provider
This is a stub implementation of what gcam needs and it works great. I believe, independent of sandboxed play services, GrapheneOS team plans to implement stub play services like this for all parts, not just those required by gcam.
You can install gcam and just give it no permissions (especially network). It will chug along merrily.
I started using GrapheneOS today and was able to install the official Google Camera app through Aurora store (the only good camera app for pixels imho).
As akc3n suggested in their comment, the installable sandboxed google play services fixes some of the compatibility issues that Graphene has had up till now.
Obviously it's a tradeoff I'm making between privacy and a great camera, but I'm not logged into my google account anywhere and I denied location permissions to the camera.
This is a stub implementation of what gcam needs and it works great. I believe, independent of sandboxed play services, GrapheneOS team plans to implement stub play services like this for all parts, not just those required by gcam.
> AntennaPod is equally amazing as a podcast client (I prefer it to overcast switching from the iPhone).
I tried installing this on an amazon fire tablet i have lying around. It seems nice but the variable speed and better processing of sped up audio on overcast is what makes me prefer it over other podcast players and the sped up audio on this player is awful.
Replaced Apple Watch with GadgetBridge and a Mi 6 band (cheaper and I have easy access to all data, you need to sync once with their app after you get the key you can delete it ... did the setup on the iphone and copied out the key with a commandline python script from github).
Syncthing is amazing (local sync of audio books, camera images).
AntennaPod is equally amazing as a podcast client (I prefer it to overcast switching from the iPhone).
Other apps I'm using regularly: AnkiDroid
So far so good, not having the Google Services seemed ok, except: 1. still in search for good camera application, recommendations welcome. 2. a replacement of Reeder as an RSS reader (so far have not found a solution that works for me).
Yet, just started programming for it a bit and have to say I love flutter. It's pretty polished (and great for my needs).