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Comment by sankalpmukim | Hacker News Reader

good writeup. I've been meaning to set this up for myself too. I keep uninstalling apps from my phone every other day because if I use something very little, I am afraid the app is collecting data from my usage in some way or the other.

I have a fairly new ish Pixel phone, do you think I'll be able to go back if I don't like it?

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I have a fairly new ish Pixel phone, do you think I'll be able to go back if I don't like it?

Yeah, it is very easy, it's described here:

https://grapheneos.org/install/web#replacing-grapheneos-with...

Similar to GrapheneOS, Google also has a web installer (linked from the above section). Just in case you didn't know - both installing GrapheneOS and recovering the stock OS will remove all data as well.

Yes, it's super simple to install GrapheneOS and to revert to the factory OS on Google Pixels. It is done from Chrome browser with phone connected via USB cable, no need to install anything. Of course when you'll switch, you'll lose all data on your phone, basically like factory reset (but esims survive I think).

eSIMs survive the grapheneOS install…

Because when I had set it up, grapheneOS itself couldn’t install or set one up unless it was previously installed under the old OS.

So I had to set up my carrier and then install grapheneOS.

It can install eSIMs on its own now so this doesn’t matter other than confirming the eSIM carries over.

I’ve never reverted to stock android and I’m never looking back so idk if the eSIM survives the round trip.

Both install and reversion to stock OS are incredibly easy. Just back up first.

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