They are convenient, but there’s only a couple sites that support full login with passkeys. I’m reading between the lines of your comments none of them are sites you’d use (Microsoft, Github, Google, etc…)
Someone else commented KeepassXC has an open issue about passkeys, perhaps they’ll add support sometimes too.
You’re not really missing anything yet, to be honest. I’ve mostly tried them out just out of interest, and it’s still very much aimed at people using Google or Apple…
With Bitwarden, you can use passkeys on chromium browsers. Vanadium actually enabled support in advance.
You need to have Play Services installed, though. This is due to Chromium, nothing GOS can do about that. No need for even network permission for Play Services, luckily.
Firefox is supposedly adding a standalone implemetation, which won’t require Play Services, any year now…
Don’t have Proton Pass, so don’t know what’s the situation there. With BW+Vanadium, they work well. I just wish Play Services weren’t required. With Google Passwords they probably just work.
I don’t think most apps even access sensors. I also think disabling it is not necessary, more so if you don’t allow network for an app. Though some (google) apps may still send data to Google via Play Services, supposedly.
I wouldn’t worry about it, but you need to decide for yourself. Usablilty is also an important factor, pixels aren’t cheap at least where I live.
Not a stupid question at all.
Location is for, well, location specifically. Sensors is a GOS thing, it blocks access to all sensors, like gyro, proximity, ambient light, etc.
Since it’s not part of AOSP, apps will very likely misbehave if you turn the sensors permission off. That’s why I left it enabled for Play Svcs and GSF, not sure if it’s actually necessary.
From https://grapheneos.org/usage#bugs-uncovered-by-security-features :
Similarly, some of the other privacy and security improvements reduce the access available to applications and they may crash. Some of these features are always enabled under the hood, while others like the Network and Sensors toggles are controlled by users via opt-in or opt-out toggles. Apps may not handle having access taken away like this, although it generally doesn’t cause any issues as it’s all designed to be friendly to apps and fully compatible rather than killing the application when it violates the rules.
IMO, just the options to automatically turn off WiFi and Bluetooth after being disconnected for a while are enough to make it worth it. Not to mention all the other privacy benefits, like others have stated.
Oh, and network permission toggle is also really useful. If only passkey APIs were part of AOSP instead of Play Services / GSF, I’ve got them installed just for that (with only sensors permission)
Lemmy is still a bit too hard core to get sarcasm in things like these
Great way to keep in touch with the the in-laws
Not much to comment on the technical side, but quite a bit of things get upstreamed or reported from GrapheneOS. I believe they really know what they’re doing. You can ignore the rest if you don’t care for the general opinion.
Yes, there’s probably Google code in the sandbox feature, it’s basically the stock Android userland app sandbox. The magic is the compatibility layer that allows Google apps to run as regular userland apps.
I bought a Pixel 7a, just so I could try GrapheneOS.
Installed it straight after unboxing, with Play services. Ended up using it pretty much like any Android phone. Installation is simple using the web installer. On recent versions, even Android Auto works, so the only thing you’re really giving up is NFC payments. Some banking apps may don’t work, but I’m lucky (or rather not unlucky) that the ones I use do. I believe those rare apps are somewhat lazily developed, and rely / trust on Google to do security for them.
Some months later, I went back to the stock ROM, mostly for comparison. Stock Pixel OS has a lot of appealing features, but most of those are just “nice to have” things. Stayed on stock for a few months, but the plethora of obscure Google “privacy settings” put me back to GrapheneOS, and finally off Google. Reverting to stock was also simple, just as easy as flashing GrapheneOS.
Now I don’t have Play services at all anymore, and have cleared most Google services (gmail, photos, drive…) so at least not much new data will go there. I do use Google Camera, and have Photos installed since I think the post-processing happens in Photos. Both have network permission denied, which is one of the nicest added features of GrapheneOS. The stock GOS camera is OK, but that’s one thing I think Google does better, though this is a subjective thing.
The only thing I kind of miss is Google’s find my phone stuff. Even though it’s quite invasive, I have needed it once and it resulted in me getting a lost phone back. A simple solution is not to lose your phone.
Apart from the per-app network permission, another really nice feature in GrapheneOS are the settings to toggle WiFi and Bluetooth off automatically. Why these are not in any “official” ROM tells a tall tale about how much they care about your privacy. The auto reboot if not unlocked in a while also brings some assurance regarding losing your phone, at least the storage will automatically back in encrypted unlocked state.
Vanadium might be the best browser I know for Android. Pretty much Chrome without all the things that make Chrome one of the worst browsers. Vanadium’s point is security, privacy (e.g. adblockers) is not the main focus. I’m not sure if there actually even is adblock features bundled nowadays.
If you want all the nice modern bells and whistles, stay on some other OS. If the benefits above appeal to you, there’s really not much you give up in the end with GrapheneOS. It requires a bit more technical mindset, but not really even technical know-how. I haven’t noticed bugs or broken stuff anywhere, with or without Play services. Android Auto (requires Play services) gets stuck sometimes, but that may also be my low-tier car too.
The “sandboxed” Google Play refers to the apps running as user installed apps vs the system-wide root-access-to-everything apps they are on stock. The same limitations you can apply to any other app you install apply to GSF apps too. So even if you install Play services, you are severely limiting the scope of data Google gets from you. It’s a solid middle ground between full degoogling and stock OS.
I’m not even an Android app developer, and will gladly admit technical mistakes. If you want something negative, the vocal minority of GOS users is really vocal and really full of themselves.
I stripped down Hydroxide, the OSS version of the Protonmail Bridge, to only send push notifications of new mail via a ntfy.sh server of your choice. Needs a Linux box to run on still, so not for everyone.
Main advantage over the otherwise good You Have Mail android app is that if you already use ntfy for other notifications, there’s no need for a separate app for just mail notifications.
I’m running Aurora DX on work and personal laptops. Also a gaming / media center box, which uses a custom ublue-silverblue based image that has ZFS modules installed (the box is also used for local homelab backups)
As long as you can get to the flatpak/container mindset, the atomic distros are absolutely brilliant.
Thanks for the info, but Matrix first…? I had to install the app again and try it out, but couldn’t figure out how to start a new matrix chat.
I really like the client UX/UI-wise, but unless I’m missing something it’s definetly not a viable Matrix client yet.
Yeah, you can use Element web and reset the account password using “forgot password” to use the beeper homeserver, but OP is asking about Android clients
The Beeper client is 100% not usable for Matrix-to-Matrix messaging, I don’t think it even supports e2ee, but I have heard they’re working on it.
Does the new Beeper Android client already work with Matrix messages? I tested it briefly after the release, but it basically didn’t support regular Matrix at all yet
Nextcloud notes, but the setup isn’t obvious:
And you have a shared note. The Notes folder refers to the folder containing the user’s note files, not sure what the English name is.
Not sure how well concurrency is handled, as Notes doesn’t really support sharing, but if it’s for groceries, I doubt it’s a frequent issue. Has been working well for 2 years now.