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submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Charger8232@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

I wanted to share an interesting statistic with you. Approximately 1 out of every 25 people with a Google Pixel phone is running GrapheneOS right now. While it's difficult to get an exact number, we can make educated guesses to get an approximate number.

How many GrapheneOS users are there? According to an estimate released by GrapheneOS today, the number of GrapheneOS devices is approaching 400,000. This estimate is based on the number of devices that downloaded recent GrapheneOS updates. Some users may have multiple devices, such as organizations, and some users may download and flash updates externally, but it's the best estimate we have.

How many Google Pixel users are there? Despite Google's extensive data collection, this one is surprisingly harder to estimate, since Google hasn't released an exact number. There's a number floating around that Google has 4-5% of the smartphone market, which is between 10 million and 13.2 million users in the United States. I can't find the source of where this information came from. That number is problematic, too, because Japan supposedly uses more Google Pixel phones than the United States. The Pixel 9 series was also a big jump in market share for Google. I couldn't find any numbers smaller than 10 million, and it made the math nice, so that is what I went with.

Putting the numbers together, it means that 4% of Google Pixel users are running GrapheneOS. That means in a room of 25 Google Pixel users, 1 of them will be a GrapheneOS user. If you include all custom Android operating systems, that number would certainly be much, much higher.

To put it into perspective, each pixel in this image represents ~5 Google Pixel users. Each white pixel represents that those ~5 people use GrapheneOS:

Even with generous estimates to Google's market share, GrapheneOS still makes up a large portion of their users.

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[-] hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

One of my ideas for increasing GrapheneOS market share is to market GOS as the minimalist phone so many crave.

In recent times, I've stumbled across a handful of articles about how dumbphones are back, and how people crave more minimalist phones to curb smartphone addiction or otherwise.

GrapheneOS is a great minimalist phone that's still "smart," yet secure and private.

GOS is a way better option than dumbphones because:

  1. Chances are you'll need some sort of smartphone functionality. For example: Digital "live" tickets that you can't screenshot and need to be opened on your phone directly (Ticketmaster, MLB, etc.)
  2. Using a dumbphone reverts you to older technologies and protocols, like cell towers and SMS. These are inherently insecure and shouldn't be used anymore. So even though you might "feel" like you're better off, your communications (text, audio, video) take a huge leap backwards in terms of privacy and security.
[-] Danitos@reddthat.com 137 points 6 days ago

That image is a horrible way to represent any ratio. I love it!

[-] HereIAm@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago

I actually do like it. I don't see it as trying to show an actually accurate ratio, or for you to be able to make an informed decisions from it. I read it as a vibe check, just a quick "what would a room fu LLM of pixel users" look like.

[-] Ferk@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I'm not sure if that'd be what it'd look like.. distributions are hardly ever that heterogeneous.

I'd bet all the GrapheneOS users would get together in their own corner and nerd out about their customizations.

For the record: 1 in 25 is 4% ...the image gives (intentionally?) the illusion of the proportion being higher.

[-] potatopotato@sh.itjust.works 125 points 6 days ago

Hello fellow criminals, anyone get up to any good crime lately?

[-] huquad@lemmy.ml 46 points 6 days ago

Nice try FBI

[-] zurohki@aussie.zone 18 points 5 days ago

I didn't do the legally mandated number of "Hail Corporate!"s yesterday.

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[-] jali67@lemmy.zip 15 points 5 days ago

Just doing my best to avoid surveillance capitalism and government surveillance. Is that illegal yet?

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[-] smiletolerantly@awful.systems 69 points 5 days ago

Graphene explicitly says the 400k are worldwide. You cannot then go ahead and use the US numbers for your comparison. From your own source, Google shipped 10 million Pixel 9 devices in 2023 alone. This does not account for other/older pixel models, or the sum total of sales before that point, or since.

Why not just share the actual number: worldwide, there's 400k users.

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[-] Tywele@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 5 days ago

You are comparing worldwide numbers to US-only numbers.

[-] Nighed@feddit.uk 1 points 3 days ago

Yeh, that's crazy maths....

[-] shadowtofu@discuss.tchncs.de 58 points 6 days ago

Google sold 40 million Pixels between 2016 and 2023, and that number has grown rapidly in the last few years. I think an estimate of around 40 million active Pixel phones is reasonable, which would give GrapheneOS a relative market share of 1%; certainly less than 2%.

[-] Charger8232@lemmy.ml 14 points 5 days ago

I'm certain that most people between 2016 and 2023 bought multiple devices to upgrade old ones.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago

I'm on, I think, my 3rd Pixel. All of them were chosen because of the possibility of putting a third-party firmware on them, but my current one is the first I've actually done it to.

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[-] Moonrise2473@lemmy.ml 36 points 5 days ago

Considering that if you use a custom ROM, you're a pro user, the 1% of the users, this means only one of this two cases:

  1. The Google Pixel line is a complete failure and failed to reach mainstream status, nobody knows the brand and buys the phones in a store, they're moving 1000x less units than Apple

  2. There's some error in your numbers

[-] Ferk@lemmy.ml 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)
  1. The Pixel is easily unlockable, so one can install custom firmware without being a "pro", it was successful/popular enough that got enough hackers interested to form a community around it, and its hardware is (or was reverse-engineered to be) compatible enough to make the experience seamless, with a whole firmware project that it's exclusively dedicated on that specific range of hardware devices, making it a target for anyone looking for a phone specifically to install custom firmware on.

But it could still be a mix of 2 and 3.

[-] fluxx@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago

I bought my mom a pixel and installed graphene on it and gave her. She is by no means a power user. Never underestimate the will of nerds to go a step further :)

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[-] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 18 points 5 days ago

I'm one of those people who use GrapheneOS every day, I love my Pixel 9a.

[-] Landslide7648@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago

I’ve heard you can’t use banking apps on graphene os, how do you get around that? And are there any other trade offs that you have to make for more privacy?

[-] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 1 points 3 days ago

I just use the website, so I can’t really tell the difference or give you a proper comparison. I haven’t tried the app, for my bank at least, the website basically is the app.

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[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 33 points 6 days ago

I never would have guessed anywhere near 400k, that's wild!

[-] Salvo@aussie.zone 12 points 6 days ago

I’m surprised it isn’t more.

Pixels are the reference platform for a lot of open-source phone operating systems. A disproportionate number of people who purchased Pixels are the type of person who did believe Googles motto of “Don’t be Evil”, even after Google abandoned the motto.

Now that Google is inarguably Evil (not Musk Evil, but definitely more Evil than Apple), these people are searching for solutions. They are gun-shy and are not likely to get an Evil iPhone, have a large investment in the Android ecosystem so are unlikely to pivot to Linux Phone, and the niche Android variants are more likely to be assassinated by Google.

GrapheneOS is the obvious choice. I’m surprised it isn’t a higher percentage.

[-] human@slrpnk.net 16 points 6 days ago

I'm sure it's a mix, but I would expect fewer people that have GrapheneOS because they have a Pixel than have a Pixel because they are the only devices supported by GrapheneOS.

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[-] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 4 days ago

Makes sense. Pixel is the successor to Nexus, which was always meant for tinkerers. The Pixel is (was?) sold unlocked, too. Unless you bought it from a carrier.

Pixel is also underpowered compared to iPhone and Galaxy, but priced similarly. So either you buy it because you just love Google that much... or you want to do something else with it.

Wondering if Graphene OS supports the AI hallucination camera mode on the Pixel 10 Pro where you zoom it at "100X" and it makes up details. Don't get me wrong here — as an iPhone/Galaxy user (I main the iPhone but I do use both, and have also used HTC and Motorola) I think the feature is awesome... unless you're trying to capture text. In which case it won't work. Well, it'll try to work. It won't work well. And I don't suppose you could show it the text later and update the 100X photo, but if you had that opportunity, you would just take a better picture up close.

[-] mirshafie@europe.pub 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I have a Pixel 9 Pro because when I bought it it had the best camera that you can could in Europe. I tried the best iPhone and Samsung phones at the time and Pixel was for sure better, especially in low-light conditions.

Only Huawei has better cameras (by a fair margin as well). I've never experienced that it feels slow or underpowered, but maybe that's the case on paper.

[-] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

A lot of it is "on paper" as you say.

For example, iPhone uses NVMe SSD storage. The best Android phones use UFS, which is cheaper, and, "on paper," slower. But there are other bottlenecks to consider, and in real world performance, UFS is at least as good.

I can only speculate as to why Apple uses the part that costs more and is only better in theory, but my best guess is that the iPhone is intended to be used for far longer than they're marketed. Like Apple marketing would have you believe you need to upgrade every year or two, but Apple engineering would allow you to easily use an iPhone for five years, if you could resist the temptation of marketing. And it's honestly not really that much different with Android. I have a 2019 Galaxy S10 that still runs relatively well. Could use a new battery, it doesn't last long when it's powered on, but it still runs well in the time it has.

[-] mirshafie@europe.pub 1 points 3 days ago

Yeah I think a lot of Apple users get really attached to their gadgets and want to use them forever. Also, there's the resale value that helps the kind of customer that wants to buy the new thing every year. So making sure that the products hold up for a long time is probably a really solid strategy for them.

[-] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

Kinda/sorta. The resale value is better than on the Android side, but it's still pretty damn insulting. Mainly because storage doesn't matter. So you pay more for the extra storage, but you don't see any of that returned in the resale. If you're playing the resale game, either stick with base storage, or sell privately (in which case you can't really say Apple resale is higher, it's whatever people will pay). But better than either way? Buy a phone that's a couple years old. Take advantage of the resale situation, but then of course you risk inheriting someone else's problem. And always always always buy an iPhone in person, and ensure the person has properly signed out of it (and turned off "Find My"). Too many people sell without doing that, and move the money, and you can't get your money back, and you can't use the phone either. Don't let it happen to you. But if you deal with honest people (or ensure their honesty) it removes one issue.

[-] magikmw@piefed.social 2 points 3 days ago

How to say 4% and make it sound more impressive.

[-] mlg@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago

One one hand, a superior ROM choice

On the other hand, subpar crappy Google hardware

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[-] NickwithaC@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

1 in 25 is a very odd way to say 4%...

[-] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 18 points 6 days ago

4% is a very odd way of saying 1 in 25

[-] Courantdair@jlai.lu 12 points 6 days ago

1 in 4% is a very odd way of saying 25

[-] pirat@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

4% of 25 is a very odd way of saying 1

[-] huquad@lemmy.ml 8 points 6 days ago

If you actually read the source, you'd know it's closer to 2 in 50.

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[-] vatlark@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

c/dataisbeautiful :P

I had no idea the share was so large.

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this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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