Reclaiming Privacy With the Above Phone

Off the Cuff Public Off the Cuff
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61

Wow that’s a big fail. Thanks for sharing.
I’ll read up on the Reddit thread.

Do others here have a workaround?

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62

That’s weird I run graphene on a pixel 8 pro and haven’t had substantial problems with SMS or MMS.

I’ve heard that RCS is pretty sketchy though.

When I have had problems in the past I’ve always figured it was my discount cell service provider at fault. A reboot would cause messages to start moving again (and the problem comes up maybe twice a year.)

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RCS and group are the worst
That’s the big fail for us.

64

Not really. We’ve tried. Some of it may have something to do with Verizon. The techs at above phone are great but they don’t have a solution either.

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65

I’m sure you probably have stumbled across this with your troubleshooting but to have even a hope of getting RCS working, you will need to be using Google Messages app on your phone and there are a bunch of settings and support apps/services that have to be enabled and granted permissions plus security tweaking of app settings in the grapheneOS menus (not sure if AbovePhone exposes those same settings).

And even after that RCS will definitely not have a guarantee of functioning. Its a hit or miss for folks

I don’t do much texting so I’ve never bothered with RCS on my GrapheneOS phones and all my texting is low volume but SMS and MMS have worked as expected.

I always recommend Signal as that app is fully end-to-end encrypted and also only requires a simple internet connection (wifi or cell data) to function and it just works as you found out.

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If you don’t find a buyer for the Above phone, there is a possibility to install a vanilla install of GrapheneOS on the system assuming AbovePhone doesn’t do anything weird to a standard Pixel. There’s also the possibility to install the original Google factory image on the phone too.

I’d be happy to help with either. I’m a nobody on the forums here but I’ve done several GrapheneOS installs (no return to stock yet) on Pixels and I’ve worked in IT and dabble with selfhosting and a homelab.

Might get a functioning phone out of a brick with some time investment though I cannot guarantee results.

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FYI, GrapheneOS is only for a very limited and specific list of Google made cell phones and tablets. There is no GrapheneOS for laptops/desktops.

Here’s the supported list:

Generalized info/opinions

of what I am seeing from Above’s website and publicly available information; but not as anyone with experience using any of the Above hardware/software/services.

The AbovePhone laptops are using a customized linux distro called AboveOS which is based on Arch Linux per AbovePhone’s website. Looks like Above is rebranding Lenovo laptops in a similar way they are using Google’s Pixel phone lineup. The hardware these laptops are using is not bad, but definitely starting to age (the Intel 11th and 10th gen processors used were first released in 2021 and discontinued in 2024).

Frustratingly, I’m not seeing a link to a public Git repo or any public access to the code for AboveOS anywhere on the Above website (or any of their software for that matter). I did some searching and I think I found the Above public github account; unfortunately none of their software/tooling is public. This is not necessarily a bad thing (plenty of companies are closed source) but usually a privacy focused company also has a large amount of their content exposed to the public so the public can audit and verify the claims of what Above is doing (see Proton at the end of my post).

If you’re after a prebuilt linux based laptop or desktop with current generation hardware and solid support I’d personally recommend System76 or Framework.

Both companies not only heavily use open source but also contribute back to the open source tools they use and/or publish their own maintained software. Akin to Above making a customized OS called AboveOS, System76 has developed and is continuing to develop Pop_OS for their laptops. However, the awesome part is you can also download and use the customized OS on any system you own that supports the software. YMMV, but the software is out for people to use if one does not want to go with the dozens of other linux variants.

Framework is a huge right to repair advocate and tries to publicly publish as much as possible any technical details for you to be able to repair, customize, and/or modify their hardware (some technical details are locked private due to supplier mandates). Framework also sells laptops/desktops that support common linux distros but you would need to be somewhat technical savvy as Framework only sells fully prebuilt systems with Windows 11 installed; you would have to install linux yourself either on the prebuilt wiping Windows 11 or by getting a DIY kit with without Windows and assembling and install Linux yourself.

While neither of these linux based hardware makers are explicitly privacy focused not come with Above’s tools pre-installed, these systems are blank slates and you can install any software you want on them.

Proton is another great example of a privacy focused company publicly committing to keeping their software and tools open source to allow both users and security researchers to audit and vet that the software is not only doing what it’s saying, but also can help find bugs and release fixes.

I would have expected something something similar from Above. The Above blog goes a little into the tech they use, but over all the company feels way more opaque than I would expect for a privacy focused company.

Sorry for the wall of text; hopefully its helpful or at least food for thought for everyone!

68

I run three phones now.

My main ‘work phone’ which I use for business-related conversations, texts, and activities. It’s as convenient, meaning as insecure, as can be.

I have a private phone, but also just running a Droid platform.

But now I have an AbovePhone which I am keeping super squeaky clean simply for privacy purposes. It’s worth it to me to have what I believe are fully encrypted, non-eavesdropped conversations.

The spectrum is between Privacy and Convenience. The more of one you get, the less of the other you have.

Given the nature of my work, this is important to me:
https://x.com/MBitcoiner/status/2003500300251083049

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69

Yep. Been there. Thanks.

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70

That’s where I am going too. Going to hang on to the Above Phone. It’s just going to sit in a drawer for a little bit until I have a chance to do above suite and get a phone number for it.

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71

I got my number using US Mobile…great service so far. I am almost certainly going to drop ATT and Verizon (my other two providers). The pricing is nearly a full order of magnitude less with US Mobile and I seem to get the same half crappy reception I get with the other providers anyway.

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My use case would be having Above Phone as my only one. Reliable phone and text are absolute must. Email, web browsing, and maps are close to must-haves as well.

I’m willing to put in work upfront to set up a new system but too much time on an ongoing basis to maintain it might make it a dealbreaker.

Thanks for the updates on the phone. Seeing what others go through (good and bad) informs my research.

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73

I just switched from Verizon to Visible.
I took advantage of a black Friday deal, an American Express rebate, and a Rakuten deal and ended up getting almost the same service for about 160 bucks for the year.

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If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, check out cape. They claim to provide borderline anonymous cell phone service:

I haven’t tried it.

Here is the graphene discussion forum for it:

75

Its great to see various options brought up in this thread. I have had my head out of the game for a while and am not up to speed.

One way to get anonymous comms is to get a new tablet and a cat5 to USB dongle and use hotel or library internet with it by putting the library station computer’s cat5 into your dongle. Reset tablet to factory settings between sessions.

Another way is to use a Linux DVD on laptop with no writable drives on public wifi. Turn off CPU serial reporting in cmos.

A small wifi access point could also be added to a public system temporarily. Most have no protections against such.

These are small tools one could keep in the laptop bag just in case.

76

I have not used the service yet so massive YMMV but here is another one to add to the list as a possible option:

You can checkout with crypto or CC so if you are following the appropriate level of OpSec, InfoSec, and sanitized systems you could keep a relatively anonymized phone.

I heard about the company from Louis Rossmann who is a big privacy and right to repair advocate and is not only putting his money where is mouth is but is also taking action by going after legislation and starting businesses/foundations that are for privacy and right to repair.

Here’s his video about the phone company/checkout process.

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77

I can’t speak to the AbovePhone specifically but I have installed and ran GrapheneOS for several years now and on several phones that are my only phone.

Install process for DIY GrapheneOS was simple (but I am a technically adept user). Follow the instructions and have patience. And make sure the phone you are installing is from the approved list of phones that GrapheneOS works on. Usually the latest Pixel will take many months before support is there and Google just recently made the process to get GrapheneOS on new hardware even more difficult and long for the dev team.

I highly recommend a GrapheneOS phone if you are privacy focused with a couple caveats to know going into it.

  • There will be teething issues when you first adopt the phone. Be willing to deal with them and exercise patience. If you use a phone as a critical, non-replaceable tool and it must always work then make sure you have a backup/alternate until you confirm that everything you normally use your phone for works on the GrapheneOS based phone.
    • Not every app will work out of the box.
      • Apps are way more locked down by default and some apps really don’t like that.
    • If you are willing to tinker a bit on first installation/use most common apps will function.
    • This is less common, but sometimes apps will be working for months and randomly stop working. Usually its an app update or OS update that triggers the issue. Troubleshooting will be required but usually they can start working again. You may also have to wait for another update to change things. This is very infrequent but is also random. I had it happen to me just once on one app that’s not a critical to me app in 3+ years.
  • USB-C charging and 3.5mm audio will never work flawlessly. It will be VERY hit and miss. This has never worked flawlessly for me. I have tried multiple adapters. It will flawless either charge over the adapter or play audio over the adapter (depending on which one you have plugged in). But the combination of both charging and outputting audio will work fine, stop working, work again, etc all on the same day, multiple times a day. And yet sometimes it works fine for days in a row. This occurs on multiple phones, I’m okay putting up with this but I definitely get frustrated, especially on road trips. But its also not frustrated me enough to spend money to get a wireless charger or a bluetooth to 3.5mm audio receiver to plug into my radio (but I consider both regularly xD).
  • If you use banking apps on your phone (not just via a web browser on your phone) you might have issues. Very much YMMV and you would need testing.

Once you get all your apps loaded and common use scenarios tested the phone tends to do very well.

What’s awesome?

  • None of the dozens of preinstalled Google Apps come installed
  • Every app I install is there because I put it there. You can choose how many snoopy apps go back on your phone (I still use Google Maps and the Google Play store as my source)
    • Even the snoopy apps are locked down. If I open Google Maps it can take 10s of seconds before it shows a GPS lock because I only allow the location data when the app is in use.
  • Google Camera app still works and is available from the GrapheneOS App Store.
  • GrapheneOS can trick apps into thinking they have all the permissions or storage access the app wants without actually granting them full access (just a limited access that you decided was okay).
  • If you setup your phone right and keep limited apps and notification permissions minimal, its suddenly just a useful tool and not a constant distraction.
  • Mapping/GPS logging works great (I recommend OrganicMaps for offline maps and GPS logging).
  • Still works fine with common work apps like MS Outlook and Gmail and is able to provide 2FA notification permissions for MS365.
  • Once setup and teething is over; everything just works.
  • I feel like the owner of my phone and data
  • You can setup full storage encryption (IIRC its on by default)
  • You can setup a wipe code (full loss of your phone data so be careful).
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Some useful phone apps

I recommend these and these apps have worked well for me on GrapheneOS:
(FOSS stands for Free and Open Source Software)

  • OrganicMaps

    • Great for GPS logging and for always have a map in your pocket even with no internet. You download the map data for state(s) and countries ahead of time so once you are nowhere, you have the data. GPS logs stay local.
    • FOSS

  • Grayjay

    • Great for viewing video content. Also can download and keep files offline for playback later.
    • Can access content from Youtube, Rumble, Odysee, etc.
    • You can login or stay logged out for better privacy
    • Great for listening to Peak Prosperity on the go!
    • Also available on your desktop though that version is very alpha
    • FOSS

  • foobar2000

    • Great for offline music playback (you put the music on your phone and play)
    • closed source but freeware
    • The dev said keeping closed source is by design and his logic makes sense.

  • Obsidian

    • Markdown based text/notes app. Takes some getting used if you are new to markdown (same standard the forums use).
    • Offine, on your phone only, unless you setup a syncing tool or signup for Obsidian’s sync function. Also a great tool on other operating systems like Linux, MacOS, and Windows.
    • Closed source but all of the data is stored in plain text files that can be opened with any text editor.
      • All functionality is free with optional paid functions

  • Signal

    • Private, E2E encryption communication app
    • FOSS, though some things like the Android app have closed source components within.

  • Bitwarden

    • Great and encrypted password storage. Remember one really strong master password to unlock all your other accounts. Don’t forget to use 2FA on your Vault!
    • Has a free and paid cloud syncs. Has a self-hosted vault option too!
    • FOSS

  • Aegis

    • 2FA OTP application. Stores locally only. Make sure you have backups that are off of your phone!
    • Think Google Authenticator replacement, Microsoft Authenticator replacement, etc.
    • No cloud syncing caveat
    • CAUTION: There is a backup function within the app. Use it and make sure those backups are in a secure storage location not on your phone! If you don’t have those backups and your phone dies, is stollen, looses data, etc., you are locked out of every 2FA protected account you have in the app.
    • FOSS

  • Futo Keyboard

    • great replacement keyboard app
    • offline and private
    • FOSS

  • Futo Voice

    • Great text to speech functionality and integrates with Futo keyboard
    • Runs on device, no cloud usage
    • FOSS

  • Bonus mention: PhotoPills

    • Only helpful if you are into photography either as a hobby or professionally.
    • Amazing app that allows you to scout and plan shots. Shows all the astronomical data and its relation to where you are on earth.
    • Paid app, closed source, but so worth the cost.

And if you are into self-hosting apps and services:

All of these apps/services are excellent, but rely on you having a server that you host (either on your own hardware or your own cloud instances) to serve up the data and content. Remember to have backups of your self-hosted applications or you can easily loose your data!

Immich

Photo backup and catalog app. Replacement for common services like Google photos, iCloud photos

If you could only spend the time to self-host one app, Immich would be the app to dedicate your time and resources too! It is amazing. I take WAY more photos now because I know the photos only exist under my control. And I love geo-tagging my photos to see everywhere I have explored and the best part is the location data stays local with me! Also when accessed via the web (not the apps) Immich is able to properly display 360 pano photos from drones and 360 cameras!

FOSS

Nextcloud

Sort’ve a OneDrive/Google Drive and MS Office online/G Suite replacement if setup right. Its an okay tool. Some aspects are great, others are very lacking (phone photo backup backs up your photos, but has horrific photo management; just use Immich)

FOSS

Jellyfin

Run your own Netflix and Spotify! This does rely on you having the movies, tv shows, and music that you want to watch and listen to on your own server. Check out MakeMKV for digitizing DVDs and Blurays and Exact Audio Copy (EAC) for ripping your CDs (though EAC only supports Windows OS). You could also sail the seven seas to source your content. . . .

If you backup a large amount of Blurays and 4k Blurays, you will need copious amounts of data storage. A single 4k bluray disc can be up to 100GB of data. As an example, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy extended editions in 4k is about 375 GB. This does not include any of the extras nor the normal length versions of the film.

FOSS

Tailscale

A personal VPN tool that allows you to not expose any of your self-hosted apps to the public internet through your firewall/router. This allows your devices (like your phone) to connect back to your self-hosted servers that have all these apps. Limited free tier for personal use. Paid tiers for extra functionality or businesses.

You can implement a form of tailscale yourself with open source software but that definitely requires major technical competence.

Leverages a lot of Open Source Software (OSS) to function and supports OSS.

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79

Not sure where to post it but I had to get a new phone, didn’t really have a time to think about options so I got(my wife actually did) Samsung A36 5G… I’m setting it up now my question what browser or search you guys using…I use duck duck not sure if it’s still OK or if there’s something better/ safer?
Ps: I’m total anti tech… Like embarrasingly not tech savvy..:flushed_face:

80

I just learned of Visible last week and looked it up tonight after seeing your post. I get some good deals from Verizon on streaming services, BUT the monthly cost is half of what I pay now. I’m going to run some numbers but think I’m going to be joining you and switching carriers. I’ve been with Verizon (previously Bell Atlantic) for 27 years now they tell me. That’s a long time, but cutting my bill in half is a huge motivation for switching carriers - even though it’s not really a big switch.

I’m wondering about all these phone and “De-googling” phones because I recently received a notice from Verizon stating that any de-googled phone would no longer be allowed to operate on their network. When researching AbovePhone a bit last week though, apparently it’s like running VMware on your phone and it doesn’t really mean that the carrier isn’t able to capture some of the information they are used to capturing. One is just operating in a bubble/container and the bloatware and other phone operations are still running outside of that bubble. I’m not convinced that what they are doing is the same or better than de-googling because the carriers wouldn’t let them run on their network otherwise. Just my $0.02.

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