>One of the most annoying aspects of GrapheneOS is how its lock screen works. There is no way to display the lock screen without the phone being locked.

This made me chuckle.

Reading the pros and cons list made it very clear to me that I'll never switch to GrapheneOS.

That guide is outdated and chock-full with misinformation.

The author should not have conflated GrapheneOS and Android, it makes it seem like problems are GOS's fault, when it applies to all Android devices. It would be more accurate to call it an iOS to Android migration guide.

You do not need to treat GOS any differently than any other Android variation, you can use all the same apps you would like, there is no rule against using privacy invasive apps on GOS. If you want the best apps, sometimes you have to go with ones made by trillion-dollar companies that vacuum up data. GOS can even let you use these apps in a privacy-preserving way, with the network toggle and sandboxing.

>It is not trivial to synchronize data across machines in a secure and decentralized way. Privacy and decentralization are difficult problems to solve, with ever-changing goal posts. Apple decided to abandon even attempting to do this, and instead went with a band-aid approach that it calls “iCloud”.

I wouldn't underestimate iCloud with advanced data protection, it is arguably the most comprehensive and affordable e2ee cloud plan available.

>No globally-consistent way to “Undo” an action (unlike Shake-to-Undo on iOS).

I don't think this is a good feature, I am glad it is not built into Android.

>Sometimes the screen cannot be turned off when on a call. I've never experienced this.

>OS can’t handle lots of files in folders. Folders with thousands of files are very slow to load and sync. Sometimes music apps fail to load all songs.

I have a 30+ GB music library and I have not had any issues. Android has a plethora of amazing music apps compared to iOS. See Powerampapp.com.

>Poor UI guidelines cause serious problems. For example, many music or video players don’t work well with the timeline playhead because it’s too close to the edge of the phone’s screen. Attempting to scrub near the beginning or end of a song causes Android’s gesture navigation (back button) to be triggered instead, closing the app.

I find the UI on Android to be much more fluid, reactive, and functional. This may have just been the specific app. GOS or Android cannot stop someone from making a buggy app any more than Apple can. There are many more Android apps that are Free and Open Source, which has a huge host of benefits. Material 3 expressive is the newest google design guideline and it looks a lot better than liquid glass imo. Yes, this is more recent against this blog, but it is being recommended now.

>Sometimes toggle swtiches in settings are also menu items that can be clicked to access more settings. Extraordinarily confusing UI/UX.

Apple also does this, see wifi in control center. I don't think it is confusing once you use your phone for a few days.

>Essential features like text-to-speech, speech-to-text, or “look up definition” have to be manually installed and setup. I see less system apps as a pro, although GOS is working on, or added a built in tts or stt functionality recently iirc.

>Doesn’t always recognize wired headphones when they’re plugged in the first time. Sometimes even the second time. Could be related to one of these issues.

This has not been a problem for me. The usb control is a massive security improvement and comes with a sane default. Just works in my experience.

>Max volume is rather low for wired headphones, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to increase it.

Have not had a problem with that.

>Seemingly no way to select text in photos without an Internet connection, unlike the built-in AI-based offline-first feature in iOS Photos.

Ente photos has good device-based OCR.

> the GrapheneOS community also recommend the Aurora store

Aurora store is not recommended because it weakens security with no privacy benefit.

> One of the most annoying aspects of GrapheneOS is how its lock screen works.

This is completely outdated, inaccurate and confuses the way the lockscreen works.

>No privacy-preserving Maps app at the level of quality of Apple Maps or Google Maps.

Again, not a GOS problem. You can use the apps from the companies that spend millions on their Maps apps, or you can use the perfectly functional maps based on OSM.

>App Store madness.

If you don't want to be confused, just use the play store like is stated. It is secure and consistent. You ask for more freedom, you get the more freedom. Again, more complaints about apps specifically, not even the app not working due to GOS hardening, just the app.

>Contacts, Email, Calendars

There is no reason you can't use iCloud mail, proton mail, or Gmail on android. The vast majority of even privacy concious people do not self-host mail.

>Passwords

Even more user friendly, you can use free bitwarden, which is better than Apple Passwords or others that are not cross platform.

I switched from iOS to GOS a few months ago, and I have had nothing but good experiences. Contrary to what you may hear, GOS works absolutely fine out of the box. I have never had an app that doesn't work, you can install polished closed source apps without network permission, and the UI is miles ahead of iOS. I highly recommend anyone to try it out.