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GrapheneOS, a privacy-first, open-source mobile operating system, is expanding beyond Google Pixels to support Motorola smartphones next year.
The GrapheneOS Foundation, which develops the OS, wrote on Mastodon that initial support will begin with traditional flagship devices before reaching foldable models, like the Motorola Razr Fold.
GrapheneOS has rigorous security standards, which it said many 2026 Motorola models are close to meeting. The company revealed that the next generation of Snapdragon chips will meet these standards, which is why it expects GrapheneOS to land on Motorola devices in 2027. Current 2026 Motorola models won’t be supported retroactively because they lack a few crucial hardware security features.
Unlike Google’s Android operating system, GrapheneOS prioritizes hardware-level anonymity and zero-trust isolation by default by removing built-in tracking and stripping Play Services down to an isolated app sandbox. It pairs this “de-Googled” baseline with some active, OS-level privacy protections to give users more control over their data without relying on third-party fixes.
CNET senior editor Michael Sorrentino said the move could also bring more software support to Motorola devices, helping them to compete with Samsung and Google devices.
“If supporting GrapheneOS also means more of Motorola’s phones will more consistently get flagship-level software support, that could put Motorola at a better footing against competing phones,” Sorrentino said. Motorola devices running GrapheneOS are slated to receive seven years of full operating system updates. For comparison, Sorrentino noted the 2026 Razr Ultra gets three years of software updates and five years of security updates.
GrapheneOS in the wild
Until now, GrapheneOS has been limited to certain Pixel phones, which the GrapheneOS Foundation says “meet the stringent privacy and security standards and have substantial upstream and downstream hardening specific to the devices.”
CNET senior video producer Jesse Orrall, who recently switched to GrapheneOS, said this has frustrated some people, especially those trying to cut ties with Google but still have to use a Pixel device.
“Having GrapheneOS available on Motorola offers, for the first time, a non-Google alternative as well as foldable form factors,” Orrall said. “I am interested to see how GrapheneOS’s ecosystem of open source app developers will incorporate a foldable screen into their designs.”
GrapheneOS made headlines in July after the US government indicted an activist who gave border agents a duress passcode that deleted the data on their phone. Samuel Tunick is accused of giving the duress passcode after agents repeatedly asked for his device’s passcode. According to the indictment, once the code was entered, “the screen went blank, flashed several times, and the phone appeared to restart.”
Tunick’s legal team confirmed he had GrapheneOS installed on his Google Pixel phone.
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