I wanted to share an interesting statistic with you. Approximately 1 out of every 25 people with a Google Pixel phone is running GrapheneOS right now. While it’s difficult to get an exact number, we can make educated guesses to get an approximate number.
How many GrapheneOS users are there? According to an estimate released by GrapheneOS today, the number of GrapheneOS devices is approaching 400,000. This estimate is based on the number of devices that downloaded recent GrapheneOS updates. Some users may have multiple devices, such as organizations, and some users may download and flash updates externally, but it’s the best estimate we have.
How many Google Pixel users are there? Despite Google’s extensive data collection, this one is surprisingly harder to estimate, since Google hasn’t released an exact number. There’s a number floating around that Google has 4-5% of the smartphone market, which is between 10 million and 13.2 million users in the United States. I can’t find the source of where this information came from. That number is problematic, too, because Japan supposedly uses more Google Pixel phones than the United States. The Pixel 9 series was also a big jump in market share for Google. I couldn’t find any numbers smaller than 10 million, and it made the math nice, so that is what I went with.
Putting the numbers together, it means that 4% of Google Pixel users are running GrapheneOS. That means in a room of 25 Google Pixel users, 1 of them will be a GrapheneOS user. If you include all custom Android operating systems, that number would certainly be much, much higher.
To put it into perspective, each pixel in this image represents ~5 Google Pixel users. Each white pixel represents that those ~5 people use GrapheneOS:
Even with generous estimates to Google’s market share, GrapheneOS still makes up a large portion of their users.
That image is a horrible way to represent any ratio. I love it!
I’d still be rocking my OG pixel if it hadn’t suddenly died on me a few years ago.
Google sold 40 million Pixels between 2016 and 2023, and that number has grown rapidly in the last few years. I think an estimate of around 40 million active Pixel phones is reasonable, which would give GrapheneOS a relative market share of 1%; certainly less than 2%.
One one hand, a superior ROM choice
On the other hand, subpar crappy Google hardware
Hello fellow criminals, anyone get up to any good crime lately?
Nice try FBI
LTT beat you to the joke.
Maybe This Phone ISN’T Just for Criminals - Trying Graphene OS for a Month.
🏴☠️
I never would have guessed anywhere near 400k, that’s wild!
I’m surprised it isn’t more.
Pixels are the reference platform for a lot of open-source phone operating systems. A disproportionate number of people who purchased Pixels are the type of person who did believe Googles motto of “Don’t be Evil”, even after Google abandoned the motto.
Now that Google is inarguably Evil (not Musk Evil, but definitely more Evil than Apple), these people are searching for solutions. They are gun-shy and are not likely to get an Evil iPhone, have a large investment in the Android ecosystem so are unlikely to pivot to Linux Phone, and the niche Android variants are more likely to be assassinated by Google.
GrapheneOS is the obvious choice. I’m surprised it isn’t a higher percentage.
I wonder how accurate it is. I have run Graphene off and on over the years but keep going back to stock.
I’m sure it’s a mix, but I would expect fewer people that have GrapheneOS because they have a Pixel than have a Pixel because they are the only devices supported by GrapheneOS.
That is exactly right. But the demographic of Pixel owners likely to install GrapheneOS (or Sailfish or Ubuntu Touch or whatever) and the demographic of GrapheneOS users likely to buy a Pixel probably has a fair overlap.
Considering that they sell Pixels at normal stores, unlike the Nexus devices that came before them. It shouldn’t be any wonder that there’s a lot of normal people using them. Especially when only google was offering long software support for Android phones.
Long-term support is never something that Normies (that don’t want iPhones) contemplate. They would rather buy the cheapest phone; they don’t see the value in a software vendor supported phone. That is why Samsung is more of a household name than Pixel.
Google have also shown that their long-term support is pointless when they pivot and implement their own version of Apples “walled garden” on the Play Store and the Android ecosystem.
Their implied guarantee of openness is just as facetious as Apples implied guarantee of privacy.
c/dataisbeautiful :P
I had no idea the share was so large.
1 in 25 is a very odd way to say 4%…
4% is a very odd way of saying 1 in 25
1 in 4% is a very odd way of saying 25
4% of 25 is a very odd way of saying 1
It’s not, it’s easier to visualise one person out of a group of 25 than it is 4 out of a group of 100.
If you actually read the source, you’d know it’s closer to 2 in 50.
Come on now, it’s actually 0,333… in 8,333…
Is there a theydidthemath lemmy community lol I’d like to be one of those reddit posters who link communities because funny lol
cool. that’s actually way more than i expected.
the fact so many people distrust phones gives me some unironic faith for humanity, this also explains why they are trying so hard to kill custom roms.
Yeah 4% is big enough to get on Google’s radar as a threat. Especially if it’s trending upwards.
This is more than just a few tinfoil hats now.
And yes they’re working on locking bootloaders and also making AOSP less useful
Hi, Google Pixel user here, wtf is GrapheneOS? And why should I get it?
It’s barbones Android, without the Google. You can add the Google stuff if you want, but by default, it comes completely de-Googled.
It also comes with some extra features, like granular app-level permissions, sandboxed Google Play Services (which a lotta apps use), duress PIN, and more.
Widely regarded as the safest and most private “commercial” mobile operating system.
Disclaimer: I run SwapMyOS, a GrapheneOS/custom ROM installation service.
essentially grapheneOs is just plain android, with additional security features/ hardening. It is said to be the most secure (normal) Os in the world.
And one of the nicest feature in my opinion is, that all the google stuff is optional. So play store and play service is just another app. (Instead of a system level privileged process)
And in my opinion, it is just the better operating system.
https://grapheneos.org/features
I think you, the question should be “why should i not get it” and the answer to this is if, you either need NFC payment (does not work (depending on bank)), or you dont want an app to ever not work, because some apps dont work on it (google play integrety check is the reason)
And it should be mentioned, that grapheneOs has one of the best web installer out there, it is easier to install then any linux distro. It was a dream really.
(and for switching the data transfer might be annoying)
Pixels are dirt cheap because Google is harvesting massive amounts of data from Pixel users, so they give them away.
GrapheneOS lets you have a cheap Pixel without Google knowing everything about you, and those near you.
Pixels cost around the same as any other phone from Samsung, Oneplus, or whatever.
Give them away? Not really, Samsung S series are the same pricing as pixels here where I live. The pixel a is different of course, it’s more like a Samsung FE.
Can I install it on a pixel that bricked during an upgrade?
Depends on if it’s a soft brick or a hard brick. Does it bootloop? Or just not turn on at all? Can you get into recovery?
I can’t remember. I’ll have to dig it out. I was extremely pissed off I had to buy this phone after 2 years and Google wanted an egregious amount to look at it.
And remember that some of those black areas are other oses and not just only normal pixel phones, what a win for alt OSs
