- The latest builds of Graphene OS are now available for non-folding Pixel 9 phones.
- The Google-free custom ROM is ready for interested users to install over the web.
For a lot of Pixel fans, half the appeal of owning a Google smartphone is having access to the company’s software and all that entails — early access to Android’s latest features, timely security updates, and even the option to beta test the next Android release months in advance. But Pixel phones are also incredibly flexible, and if you feel so inclined, they make a great platform for exploring some of Android’s alternative OS projects. It’s only been a few days since the Pixel 9 started arriving for shoppers who pre-ordered, and now they’ve already got a custom ROM waiting for them to check out, with the release of the first Pixel 9 Graphene OS builds.
Graphene OS offers almost the antithesis to Google’s Pixel experience, presenting users with a stripped-down, secure OS devoid of the usual Google apps and services. And if you do need to run some of those later, you’ve always got the option to set up Play Services in a fully sandboxed environment. That’s just part of the appeal of running a custom ROM like this, where you have fine-grained control over what software runs on your phone, and what kind of access it’s allowed to your data.