For all the "My Banking Apps don't work", I'd raise one question:
Do you really need access to banking apps on the go? I get that it can be handy and maybe you legit do, but I'd wager most people don't really do. If you can pay by phone you can pay by card and the card has less potentially to weirdly break.
And if your bank demands a phone app to be used, you can always have a cheap stock android lying around at home. Can't get stolen or lost. Doesn't give big G any data on you, because that phone doesn't have anything but those apps.
But I also understand "just have a second phone" is not a tempting idea for many people. I am not much of a phone person, so I'm not a good case study, but it works fine for me.
In the UK at least, banking apps are how you give people cash when you owe them for dinner, drinks, whatever. It's also needed to authorise online payments. And for travel, location services is often used by the better banks as an alternative to immediately blocking your card every time you go anywhere. Then there are account perks[0] like airport lounges, co-working spaces, exercise classes, etc. that all use the app for access.
It'd be more than just a bit inconvenient to lose all of these things…
Luckily, all of my personal and business banking apps work fine on Graphene. Even the apps for the crusty old "bricks and mortar" banks that I still have backup accounts with.
[0] As an aside, Revolut Ultra in the UK costs less than the FT Digital subscription it includes so if you're an FT subscriber, all the other stuff that comes with the account is cheaper than free.
I've used GrapheneOS for years at this point and all my banking apps work fine. It's just definitely worth a try.
I've had a government app not working once and one of the devs actually showed up on the GrapheneOS forums and now it does.
Based on this resource, it seems there's very extensive testing of banking apps on grapheneOS, and the large majority works.
https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compa...
Some info in case someone is on the fence about this, and are living in the UK. I use Monzo, and that works perfectly on GrapheneOS.
If they ever stopped working, I would just CASS to another bank. A bank that has a posture that something like GrapheneOS is too insecure to use their app on is a bit of a red flag.
Mobile apps are how most people do banking these days, and it shows. In my experience banking apps are a lot more maintained and modern than classic online banking interfaces.
So you're not just sacrificing "on the go" banking, you are likely sacrificing use of the best interface your bank offers.
> Do you really need access to banking apps on the go?
Not strictly, no, but it's useful to be able to relatively-quickly check my balances (and possibly shuffle funds around between checking/savings and my credit-union-issued credit card). I could use my credit union's website for that, but it's faster to open the app and scan my thumb.
Thankfully, my credit union's app has no issues with GrapheneOS, aside from needing to enable “exploit protection compatibility mode” to keep it from crashing on startup.
I've never used a banking app on my phone, and I have no desire to. It's the least secure device I own (in spite of running Graphene). It's the most likely device to get lost or stolen.
I currently have accounts with 3 different banks in Belgium. They all offer an app which I ignore. Online banking works just fine, heck, better than fine, it's excellent. One bank uses auth derived from my debit card (which I have to insert into a card reader to sign transactions). The other two use hardware tokens. The hardware token for my business account has a built in camera which scans QR codes displayed by the website. When signing a payment, I scan the code and the token asks "Confirm payment of 123eur to XYZ?".
It's plenty convenient for my needs.
> Do you really need access to banking apps on the go?
Yes, I do.
I need my main one for paying friends back and for authorising payments online. Luckily it works without google. The only real app I miss is Uber
I'm considering using a second phone for increased security. As you say, only put banking apps on them, leave it at home.
The larger population is getting pushed towards banking on the phone, and on top of that, many people don't own a PC/Laptop anymore.
Same here - all the German banks I know of the phone app is mostly for 2FA, but you can also use it for banking, if you like.
In my case it's also the 2FA for credit card usage (as I have the visa/mc via my bank), not only bank transfers.
Some people will suffer some inconvenience for something that they think is worth it and some people will do everything to no do anything because it is too much trouble. Sometimes they are the same people but in regards to different areas. For example I would never grow my own carrots. What for? I can buy them. And my wife would never built self hosted media server. Why spend 5k$ on PC when you can just buy Netflix?
And there is 3 kind of people that do one of the above and go around in real life and online and tries to convince everyone that THE THING that they are doing is THE ONLY, TRUE SOLUTION. Like vegans or cyclists.
In reality none of this is true. If Graphene OS would tomorrow became, magically the only mobile OS in existence they would became next evil tech company in few years. Because power corrupts.
yes. I pay with bank transfer on regular basis. Merchant generates a QR code, I scan it with my banking app and I pay him.
Sorry but thats a statement thats just willfully ignorant. Yes people need to have access to their financials when under way. That can range for PushTans, CreditCard Confirmations, to checking their budgets, moving something from one account to another, topping up your Prepaid Card. Or just being able to Pay with a Card on your Phone when you forgot your Wallet.
Sure you could say I do not go out and do not need that but realistically this is just how the world works now.
> If you can pay by phone you can pay by card and the card has less potentially to weirdly break.
Paying by card in 2026 is akin to sending physical letters.
In Sweden you use BankID to authenticate to websites and it's almost a requirement nowadays.
Luckily it works well on GrapheneOS though.
I cannot speak for every country but in the Netherlands, your banking app also serves as a 2FA instrument if you place orders with your credit card. A pop-up notification will ask you to confirm if you have indeed placed the order. While I will admit that it is possible to predict such use cases and take your phone along, it is becoming a bit difficult to predict what part of some account or service's login flow will require a confirmation with your device.