Not specific to grapheneos, and also battery friendly on LOS is localsend, and on gnu+linux I use instead localsend-go since it offers a CLI (what I use) and a rudimentary TUI which is missing some functionality but good enough (I prefer using it as CLI). But localsend also includes a windows app BTW. On gnu+linux some prefer kdeconnect, but I find it more battery intensive than localsend on the phone, and the extra functionality is not what I expected, like I originally guessed I could write sms from a gnu+linux box, or read past one, and that’s not what sms control means.

Don’t these alternatives work on grapheneos for some reason?

Hmm, youtube-dl? I believe it’s no longer the one to use, it’s yt-dlp, and mpv has support yt-dlp for quite some time, but it could be any player as long as it supports yt-dlp. What I’ve noticed is that nothing gets as fast to fix these YT issues than yt-dlp. It’s working fine for me on Artix for quite some time. And unless wanting ton use a browser, that’s what freetube has been documenting every time receiving related bugs. See for example:

https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/issues/8083#issuecomment-3326565693

Just so you know, if you like freetube, you can configure the external player to mpv, which underneath uses yt-dlp when streaming, and use the button to load the external player. Of course one can also launch smplayer, which underneath is using mpv, which underneath…

But the thing is content creators don’t move out of YT cause they’re there to monetize in the first place. So this thing seems never ending no matter alternatives like peertube exist.

Besides outertune there’s harmonymusic as well

None protect your IP if not using a non self hosted frontend like invidio or piped, cause if self hosted then you’re providing your IP any ways. So now a days actually private is kind of hard. But these applications for sure help a lot.

2025.09.26 can still do it without deno. Besides, when the change happens, node and bun (never heard about bun before) will be supported as well, not just deno, but they will require extra arguments passed to yt-dlp. If using yt-dlp directly, and already having node or bun installed, no need for deno then.

apkupdater installing from apkpure?

I’m wondering about LOS re-locking on particular devices. DivestOS used to allow that, not sure if only on pixels, but if divestOS which was based on LOS could, I don’t see how that code can not be ported over upstream LOS. Have anyone seen an effort similar to divestOS in this regard?

The battle is still there, and the GrapheneOS guy always bark at microG, like he really hates the whole concept of microG. What I have gotten from the discussion is that GrapheneOS is more secure, but although it sandboxes GPS denying some permissions, and some of those might be needed to be given away for some services any ways, it doesn’t try to fake anything, which microG does. In that sense my preference has been microG, and I don’t regret it.

That said, what you mentioned is true, both still access google app store, and still have to give some minimal information to google.

There’s a 3rd option the OP didn’t mentioned. If they are mainly interested in app store, and not the google services in general, there are a couple of somehow recognized 3rd party app store mirrors, which keep the same original signatures of the packages hosted by google app store, and they offer packages from other sources not provided by the google app store, in case interested on those packages: apkmirror and apkpure. From the two apkpure still allows to install and upgrade packages through FLOSS 3rd party apps like apkupdater, so that might be an option. For some months apkpure packages weren’t able to be installed through apkupdater, but it seems that got corrected already.

But in general, the OP would benefit from always looking for FLOSS packages on the F-Droid repo, then other non official F-Droid repos which can be used through the F-Droid app, then see if they can be installed from their web site and updated without intevention of any installer, and then if there’s no option but using proprietary software maybe looking for them on the apkpure/apkmirror sites or on apkpure through apkupdater or similar, and then aurora store, or if using grapheneOS finally google play if anything else fails, :)

I do understand the need for proprietary software, like bank OTP apps. It’s sad banks, governments, medical services and so on never look for FLOSS software, they always require users to get proprietary software. I don’t live in the EU, but I hope current hate/banning tendency ends up doing user a favor by starting to require banks, and the like to start using FLOSS apks, though doesn’t really helps me, I hope in the end it helps people in the EU.

Jami on desktop, not on phones yet:

https://jami.net/eleutheria

Available only for desktop users for now, the new Push-to-talk feature offers a new effortless way to communicate: simply press a button for hands-free, instant, and convenient audio messaging. It’s like in the olden days of gaming when gamers would key bind the Push to talk feature to be able to talk when necessary.

So jami all the way, 🙂

Monero?

I do !

works pretty well on both AOSP phones and gnu+linux desktops. Sad thing though is that I don’t like using flatpak, and I prefer distro native built software, and on Artix/Arch, there are times where the version between the distro version is slightly outdated with regards to the mobile version, and that makes things not to work. This is mainly an issue ever since jami decided to stop supporting the gtk client on the desktop, to me the qt experience have been sad. Not sure if someone has forked the gtk client, that would be great.

So I’m using xmpp as my main messenger, and keep trying jami when it works.

I really like the p2p approach from jami, and also the way they care for those with no huge batteries phones, given they added support for unified push notifications, which can be of course avoided if required for extra privacy. Given my use case, I can’t turn jami into my main messenger yet, but I keep trying, :) Meanwhile xmpp is there for me.