the icons are not for every app but i dont know if you can chsnge for default apps. the camera is pretty good has good zoom diff modes etc. battery is pretty good lasts the whole day. the sandboxed services are great most apps work you will have “GmsCompat” running when play services is. and some apps still wont work with the sandboxed play services like Gwallet and the multiple users are a very great tool if you need to run non-free software.

As with most others I use a different launcher but I switched user accounts to try it out for you and you can theme those icons and then pick a single colour, a trio of colours or choose wallpaper to colour the icons in other colours other than black and white.

I use open camera which has always been fine for my needs and doesnt include any meta data with the saved images.

Battery life has been absolutely fine for me but I never used the stock ROM for comparison.

Sandboxed stuff I’ve used has always worked as is expected but I dont use a lot of apps tbh

I use organic maps but again I very rarely use maps and it can be a bit odd in the way it works but still it has got me where I’ve been going each time.

I think it is great and wouldn’t want to switch back here is a page that lists all bank app compatability as that is a common concern for people.

Hope some of this helps :)

• You can change the default icons color (black and gray-ish in the image) or is based on the wallpaper

Sort of. There’s a selectable “highlight color” that sets the vibe for the phone. I enable the feature that makes it pick a prominent color from my current phone background image, and I find it really nice.

• The camera app is good. Not going to make professional pics or videos but I still want to use it to take pics and a good quality is important. Tried their camera on a phone and the bottom menu to switch mode (picture/video/night mode/etc) was buggy

The camera app is the least buggy, and fastest to load, that I’ve had on Android in a long time. The picture quality is fine. The features are pretty standard - nothing fancy.

• Battery life is better/worse than stock Android (if anyone tried that)

My battery life on GrapheneOS is waaaay better. I assume this is thanks to GrapheneOS having great defaults for restricting apps from running in the background without explicitly getting my permission.

• How the sandboxed play services work

I have more idea than a lot of folks, but I’m not in the headspace to articulate that today, sorry. Fundamentally, it just dumps the “phone home to Google” calls into nowhere, while telling (lying to) the app that the call was a success. Annecdotaly, this works perfectly for 80% of apps I care about, including my bank app.

• Anything else that I should know about. Some people say it’s good, some it’s bad so I’m curious to know.

Profiles were still clumsy last time I used them, and overkill for most users. In my informed non-expert opinion, many folks underestimate how much the default permissions scheme in GrapheneOS protects them without enabling profiles. That said, if I absolutely had to use a work nanny app with extensive permissions, I would enable profiles for that, if I was somehow absolutely unable to buy a dedicated separate phone to install it on. Otherwise, I think profiles cause a lot of folks to give up on running GrapheneOS, in cases where they would have been fine without profiles.

You can change the icons with a different launcher. Try Lawnchair.

I think it’s pretty good, although I did install the isolated GCam but I wouldn’t with another chance.

I hear battery is better but I can’t confirm.

I haven’t used the sandboxed services other than the isolated GCam but that worked great.

I’ve used Graphene for years now and I’ve loved it!

Try Magic Earth for a maps app.

-I haven’t found a way to change the default app icons, but it doesn’t bother me that much with all the other apps I end up having.

-the camera app is plenty good for general use. I don’t use it for social media or anything, I use mine for work for taking pics of machinery and I use it to take pics of my kids and stuff and it’s plenty good for that. I can’t say how much tinkering it let’s you do, someone else will have to give more detail

-Battery life is plenty good for me. I have a pixel 6, and I go to bed with it at like 45-60% most days. I’m sure the newer phones are a bit better, but can’t say for sure

-I wish I could give more detail on the sandboxed apps, I use a few apps that use google play services and they work well, bit idk how it works behind the scenes

-honestly it just works like your phones OS should, it’s really quite good

• I also try to use organic maps when I can, but it is still missing things, I use google maps in my browser, but that’s getting worse and worse

I’m a photographer and don’t find the stock GOS camera to be good enough. I use BigKaka’s GCAM mod which is Google’s camera with even more features. It doesn’t require internet access and everything works in version 9.2 on my Pixel 8. It doesn’t require google photos like the stock GCam.

Batter was better. Like by a lot. It became normal when I installed the google play sandbox.

I have tried on several occasions to like GrapheneOS. But every time I install it on my Pixel 7, basic functionality breaks. Things like receiving regular phone calls, as in people calling my number using a normal phone. GrapheneOS will sometimes not even ring and immediately display a notification saying “Missed call”. If my phone cannot be used as a … phone, what good is is?

I use magic earth for maps. It lacks in a lot of ways but is a usable map and navigation system. I like the nav and some of the features bit has (safety alerts, reported police) but the map detail kind of sucks. You zoom in and not every street name is shown. But try it and see if it works for you.

Battery life will be better, and by how much depends on your setup and usage. For instance, I have play services installed, which does eat some battery. But I also turn off location, Bluetooth, mic, camera and sometimes WiFi. I only turn services on when I want to use them. That saves battery. So expect good battery life, but don’t expect any miracles.

I used GOS for about a year and a half, it’s pretty great. Tbh I didn’t feel I was really losing anything from the standard Android experience, but of course gaining more privacy and security.

Sandboxed Play Services works great. The only downside is you still need a Google account to use it, even if you only use the account for that purpose. And Google has really clamped down on not letting you create an account without providing a phone number.

But overall I definitely recommend GOS.

U can change icons etc by installing different launcher fdroid has a bunch take a look through to find one u like.

There are a few apps that wont work amazon prime is one. My banking apps work but some people have had issues. Overall ive had no issues that i couldnt solve with dr gpt. Would reccommend.

Looking to degoogle myself too. For the maps, Here we go is a german brand. I know it’s not foss but being german, they have to follow GDPR which, I guess, is better than google anyways.

I want to de-Google my life. *Buys Google phone…

You may also want to check out Murena. I have a fai-phone 5 with thier E/OS on it, I’m very happy with it, and 100% google-free.