Hacker News Reader

Comment by KSPAtlas | Hacker News Reader

I'm running GrapheneOS and IMO its a good experience

The problem with custom ROMs and root is SafetyNet. Chances are bank apps (or anything that uses SafetyNet e.g. Pokemon GO) won't work.

I feel like this is where some kind of antitrust action is needed.

On the one hand, it's completely understandable that e.g. a bank wants to rely on a mechanism like SafetyNet to prevent fraud, but on the other hand it's taking away a lot of freedoms where alternatives could be implemented (e.g. let the user sign a waiver for specific risks which are usually covered by SafetyNet).

There needs to be an alternative way to provide the same guarantees and functionalities to developers and end users, but without the required reliance upon a monopolistic entity.

Just a quick side note FYI - I've been crowd sourcing banking app reports from users in order to build a (work in progress) list of international banking apps that work on GrapheneOS. To view the current list and/or submit a banking app report, feel free to check out https://akc3n.org/projects/banking/

Nice, is there a table that lists everything at once? I want to see at a glance what the overall support is.

No, not yet, that's a good idea though, thanks for that.

There is https://akc3n.org/projects/banking/#list-of-banking-apps And https://github.com/akc3n/banking/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Acl...

> international banking apps

Thanks for mentioning this. Without this explicit mention I would have (on HN) assumed it to be a US-focused list and likely have skipped it.

To Indian users of Graphene OS: do Indian banks use SafetyNet too? Any experiences?

I'm not sure if things have changed significantly but I used to run Magisk to get SafetyNet on my devices.

I remember the announcement to remove MagiskHide, not sure what people are using these days. Still, even back then with MagiskHide it was a constant arms race between Magisk and SafetyNet and I got tired of constantly having to update.

All of my banking apps work fine on GrapheneOS.

Is GrapheneOS the current major open-source-Android that would be recommended for normal users?

I used to use CyanogenMod a long time ago, then heard the recommended option became LineageOS (after I'd already changed from the old phone to a new one with stock Android), I don't know what the current "most likely to work, (reasonably) reliable" option is.

Ditto. Used IPhone 4-12 pro max switched to pixel for graphene. Don't miss apple love having granular control and the feeling like I know what my apps are all up to and not having my phone constantly calling home to mother ship.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com