I originally bought Pixels because they were the opposite of what they are now. Bloat-free devices (other than Google apps) that just provided the tools I needed to do things, while having excellent hardware security. Now it's basically GeminiOS, and they're solving the problem they created by throwing out security.

Every Pixel event for the past several years has been almost entirely about Gemini. A software feature. Which just goes to show that they have no hardware features.

I was so disappointed with my pixel 10. It's kept a pixel 7 alive for years (great phone) and only swapped when the battery swelled. The 10 was no better and potentially worse, I replaced the battery on the 7 myself and lamented it's loss to my son (he gets my cast offs). Such a good line of phones that's clearly peaked.

Graphene choosing to die on the hardware MTE hill has always seemed weird to me. It's one feature but it excludes 99% of the phones except the Pixel. GrapheneOS has so much to offer besides it, and nowadays they could use Rust as a workaround anyway.

Motorola is unfortunately gonna be in the same boat too when it comes to the prices. And I highly doubt GOS is gonna focus on their cheaper phones because they notoriously have poorer software. So now, it seems GOS is gonna be an exclusive feature. If you want it, your gonna have to pay for it.

I personally don't trust Motorola due to having poor experiences with their budget phones. Its not worth with unless you shell out the money.

Bought a Pixel 10 Pro instead of the new 11 Pro.
Worse display, price more expensive, no upside to the older model.

Literally said to myself "Yeah...no. No, thank you" when looking at the specs vs P10Pro

Pixel has 7 years of support so you could get Pixel 10 and use with Graphene OS until 2033 but yes, if you need to switch every year to the latest model than you can skip Pixel.

Google became the new Microsoft

Probably for the best. As they said, it frees them up to focus on Motorola devices, a company that's actively working with them.

It's not an on/off kind of thing, MTE is a set of ARM extensions. Either the api to use them is clearly documented or, as in the pixel 11's case, Google started to not document their implementation.

We know this matches their plan to obscure the AOSP code to eventually lock out anyone else from using their base.

GOS is not in a position to reverse-engineer api calls on what was formally documented hardware.

Instead, Google rewrote critical core Android system daemons using Rust. Like the keystore, Bluetooth stack, DNS resolver, and others. I believe using Rust essentially makes MTE unnecessary.

No. Rust being "memory safe" doesn't mean rust apps can't abuse speculation or buffer under/overruns.

The point is that the post makes it sound like using a Pixel 11 under Android results in less security than before, but for most people there is no change since they never used MTE anyway.

Read the BlueSky posts, Google didn't force app devs to opt into MTE, so no one did.

Google probably decided that since hardly anyone used MTE anyway on earlier Pixel devices, they could use the space in the chip for other uses.

"Space in the chips"? Again, see the Bluesky posts.

Google is very clearly shifting over to a completely walled garden, because, same as Apple, it isn't about the hardware performance and capabilities, it's about control.

I think you misunderstand what is being said.

The point is that the post makes it sound like using a Pixel 11 under Android results in less security than before, but for most people there is no change since they never used MTE anyway.

That's not what they're saying. They're saying Graphene without MTE is less secure, which isn't something they want.

Which you can read from their post here

We strongly recommend against buying Pixel 11 devices. Pixel 8, 9 and 10 have much better overall security for GrapheneOS. Pixel 10 is cheaper with similar hardware and MTE. Pixel 11's Titan M3 should improve BFU security for users without a strong passphrase, but losing MTE craters AFU security.

Motorola has officially confirmed it themselves, and the Pixels 8 to 10 will keep being supported even if the 12 and 13 aren't supported.

https://motorolanews.com/motorola-three-new-b2b-solutions-at-mwc-2026/

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/motorolas-grapheneos-phones-will-launch-in-2027-priced-higher-than-pixels/

They can't. They require extremely up to date firmware and very short update cycles. Only large corporations with huge phone platforms are able to do satisfy that.

Those also don't meet the hardware requirements

Using a widely-available phone with good performance, decent quality, and long term security support, meant that more people could access it. I still can't buy a Fairphone without going through an overseas middleman, then hoping I have no warranty issues, because they don't sell to Australia. If something goes wrong with my Pixel, the shop I bought it from is minutes away.