Physical changes are also welcome, so things like skins, cases, screen protections etc… are fine to discuss.
For me, in this order:
- Wi-Fi calling: it was very surprising that this was not on by default, and enabling it helped a bit with the battery life on my Pixel 7a;
- Try custom launchers: I was happy with the phone but the very first annoying thing is the damn Google search bar and how there was no way to just hide it like any other widget. So I ended up installing KISS Launcher (it’s FOSS and still maintained);
- Bite the bullet and install GrapheneOS: you get more security, sandboxed Play Services, a more fine-grained permissions system and you can still install the default Pixel apps from the Play Store while cutting off their internet access, and most importantly you get rid of the Google bar (also enabled Wi-Fi calling as previously done).
GrapheneOS is essential before connecting a pixel phone to the internet.
Use Insular to create distinct personal and work environments.
Install Silence from f-droid to screen phone calls, and completely stop spam calls in their tracks.
I do the first thing but with Shelter instead, does Insular do anything better/different?
not sure if this table is up to date but it has a comparison: https://secure-system.gitlab.io/Insular/faq.html
Silence seems cool but it looks like it hasn’t gotten an update since August 2019?
In the developer settings I set all the animations to twice as fast (half as long) so they feel snappier.
Comment on WiFi calling: I had this on for a while, but found that it was way less consistent than cell towers. Calls wouldn’t drop, but they would cut out for a second or two, and I would miss stuff in the conversation. So I actually turned this off unless I need it. You seem to like it for battery life - does it make that much of a difference?
My must-have things are more generic Android than Pixel-specific, but: Revanced apps for YouTube and YouTube music, a better file manager, Firefox, and Gallery (also by Google, but for some reason they want me to use Google Photos, which isn’t great IMO). Plus F-Droid to find some good FOSS.
Disabling Wi-Fi calling is very important to me. My call quality is much better going through the tower in my area. The tower’s extremely reliable whereas Wi-Fi might or might not have the bandwidth available to handle a call.
In my mind, a much better algorithm is needed to determine which connection is best for a call in real time.
When I had sprint, I had seamless transitions between wifi and mobile. If my network got weak/ slow it would transition to mobile mid call. Idk if it ever went from mobile to wifi, but now that’s its t mobile the wifi calling experience is much worse.
In fairness, I haven’t tried it on my new s22
I haven’t experienced drops in call quality but that’s a good thing to know!
You seem to like it for battery life - does it make that much of a difference?
I’d obviously have to measure over multiple days with AccuBattery for reliable figures, but I did notice an improvement and I’m charging less often now after I enabled Wi-Fi calling. The best I got was two whole days without plugging the phone (because I just forgot) with battery saver disabled. But it will probably also depend on where you live since Wi-Fi calling probably won’t make a difference if the signal strength from the cell towers is very good. (EDIT for another data point: after 1 day 2 hours the battery went from 58% to 21%)
I wish they moved to TSMC chips instead of playing around with Exynos-based ones though, this would have eased the Pixel battery anxiety somewhat.
I very much like CalyxOS, it’s fast and polished, using microG (an open source clone of Google play services) so all your apps work, but your battery lasts longer since everything ribs locally if you like.
Anything in particular that works better with CalyxOS + microG than with GrapheneOS + sandboxed Play Services?
There’s a lot but not total function parity. Android auto is one I wish worked, but I have a motorcycle, so don’t really care.
You’ve just gotta hope the sandboxing is effective. I’d rather just have something open source fool the apps into thinking it’s Google, vs having a low-level malware written by very smart Google engineers, constantly checking the perimeter of the sandbox for an open door…
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You still have proprietary firmware running on your phone that you have to trust, and afaik it has internet access
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I doubt Google would bother to add malware for the three people using Graphene
