Tommaso GagliardoniMar 2

Motorola announces partnership with Graphene OS to bring us secure phones!

https://motorolanews.com/motorola-three-new-b2b-solutions-at-mwc-2026/

So the mysterious manufacturer GOS was working with was Motorola, not OnePlus as early speculations suggested. This is good news, Motorola is owned by Lenovo and makes cool phones!

Reminder that Graphene OS is still based on AOSP and therefore, IMHO, eventually doomed to succumb to Google's shenanigans. However, for now and for the foreseeable future, that's the best we can have.

#grapheneos #motorola #android #aosp #linux #pixel #google #enshittification #security #privacy

Motorola News | Motorola's new partnership with GrapheneOS

Motorola announces three new B2B solutions at MWC 2026, including GrapheneOS partnership, Moto Analytics and more.

Global Blog
Show threadSparrowMar 2
@tomgag Any update on if that means Motorola update cycles will be more than 3 years?
Show threadTommaso GagliardoniMar 2
@kstrlworks Yes, I think that's the best part: Motorola phones are great hardware-wise but have terrible updates cycle. Graphene OS fits perfectly there, because they are only subject to the much faster AOSP release cycle!
Show threadSparrowMar 2

@tomgag So the issue isn't the AOSP; it's the firmware updates. These companies sign agreements for updates with chip manufacturers. For example, Qualcomm charges more based on the window of updates you're willing to get. If Motorola doesn't want to pay more, we're stuck with 3 years. Qualcomm only offers their IoT/enterprise lines 10 years max. While consumer chips get between 5-7 years, but they charge per year, which Motorola never wanted to pay for.

No amount of Android updates fixes the lack of drivers from Motorola and firmware updates from Qualcomm.

Graphene openly refuses to maintain phones where the security updates end from upstream, so we're looking at 3 year updates only as it stands.

Show threadTommaso Gagliardoni

@kstrlworks better than nothing, no? I mean, what's the alternative? 1) keep using Pixels only 2) use a still immature Linux mobile OS 3) embrace enshittification.

It's not that I don't agree, mind you, but at this point any good news is good news IMHO.

Mar 2 at 6:25pmWeb
Show threadSparrowMar 2

@tomgag You're not wrong; it was more a question of whether Motorola was going to say anything to address that, since Graphene users also want to keep phones for longer than 3 years. If the option is a 3-year Motorola phone versus a 6-year custom flash Pixel, Motorola will still miss out on sales.

I'm bringing this up since if sales numbers do dwindle, they have an incentive to cancel the partnership. With 3 years, I don't think they will get many recurring sales unless Graphene plans to drop Pixels. If they do, the consumers, are losing either way.

It's overall welcome news, but this is also a business decision, so I hope the Graphene team negotiated thinking about longevity and the business relationship rather than just from a dedicated phone platform standpoint.