Motorola and GrapheneOS collaborate for secure Android smartphones

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GrapheneOS will support Motorola smartphones in the future. The GrapheneOS developers already said in October 2025 that they were working with a major manufacturer to offer the secure custom ROM on smartphones other than Google's Pixel devices. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona 2026, Motorola revealed itself as this major manufacturer.

Until now, GrapheneOS could only be installed on Pixel smartphones, as Google's devices receive security patches most regularly and meet the other high requirements of the hardened operating system. In recent months, Google has largely restructured Android development, which has created major hurdles for custom ROM development for independent developers. This is much easier with a hardware partner.

GrapheneOS for Motorola

As Motorola explains, the manufacturer wants to redefine smartphone security with the help of GrapheneOS. Thanks to the custom ROM, devices equipped with GrapheneOS will receive a "strengthened security core" and "protection against complex threats." Furthermore, "privacy comes first." The manufacturer also promises that GrapheneOS offers better control over user data and that users can granularly determine which data leaves the device.

Motorola promises that the partnership will enable the company to offer "special high-security devices" that can also be used in companies, authorities, and the like.

GrapheneOS is known for offering more privacy than regular Android versions while having fewer functional limitations than other systems: While home banking apps and games or streaming services don't work with other custom ROMs, GrapheneOS runs (almost) like an official Android from Google. For this purpose, users can optionally equip the factory-Google-free custom ROM with Google services, but with more privacy. This is because GrapheneOS can run the original Google Play services in a sandbox, where they have limited rights like normal apps – no system access, no authority over all data.

First model with high-end hardware expected

Motorola's announcement says nothing about the hardware specifications – only that further details will be revealed later. GrapheneOS had already stated its requirements in October. At the time, a GrapheneOS moderator said in a subreddit that they would rely on existing devices for hardware, which should be equipped with a high-end Snapdragon chip "to ensure the best security and support times." According to the moderator, Qualcomm's current Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which was only unveiled at the end of September 2025, will apparently be used. A first potential Motorola device with GrapheneOS could therefore be the Signature, introduced in January. The device is not only equipped with the aforementioned Snapdragon chip but is also the first from Motorola to receive seven years of software updates.

The GrapheneOS moderator also said at the time that the Snapdragon chips deliver "significantly better CPU and GPU performance than Pixel devices." In addition, Snapdragon SoCs contain "high-quality Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GNSS, and mobile communication support" as well as eSIM support and other functions.

Google makes custom ROM development more difficult

Google has been making custom ROM development more difficult not only for Pixel devices for months: With the release of Android 16, Google released the source code of the new OS version in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), allowing independent developers to compile their own forks of the operating system under the rather permissive Apache 2.0 license. However, the company did not publish the device trees, driver binaries, and the complete kernel source code commit history that were previously released simultaneously. This puts obstacles in the way of Android custom ROM developers like GrapheneOS, /e/OS, or LineageOS.

The new partnership between Motorola and GrapheneOS is reminiscent of the cooperation between OnePlus and the custom ROM CyanogenMod: The two teamed up to initially equip the OnePlus One with the custom ROM. Unfortunately, the cooperation was short-lived, as OnePlus, among others, prioritized the development of its own Android interface OxygenOS: Cyanogenmod eventually became LineageOS ten years ago.

(afl)