- Efforts like Graphene OS face increasing pressure from apps that refuse to run on non-standard Android.
- The custom ROM project characterizes Google’s approach to device attestation as incomplete and flawed.
- Graphene OS is prepared to take legal action if Google won’t let it pass Play Integrity checks.
Android users have plenty of good reasons for why they might want to replace their phone’s official software with a custom ROM. Perhaps they’re looking for some specific feature, or they have privacy or security concerns they fear aren’t being addressed by mainstream releases. Maybe they’re just looking for up-to-date patches after their phone’s own manufacturer stopped supporting the hardware.
But going this route also has its drawbacks, and software compatibility can sometimes fall by the wayside — a situation we looked at just last month, as Graphene OS hit a roadblock when users noticed that the multi-factor authentication app Authy was refusing to operate due to its reliance on the Play Integrity API. Back then, we looked at why it made practical sense for Google to be OK with this arrangement and not extend Play Integrity validation to custom ROMs like Graphene OS. But there’s another side to this story, and it sounds like frustrations in the community are starting to reach a breaking point.