Motorola has announced a partnership with GrapheneOS aimed at developing smartphones that will be optimised for user privacy.
The collaboration on research, software improvements and new security features will be a staple in the months ahead.
For the uninitiated, GrapheneOS is an open-source operating system built on the Android Open Source Project. Unlike standard Android, it eliminates Google’s data collection layers, making it a popular choice for privacy-conscious users. Until now, GrapheneOS was ironically limited to Google Pixel devices, but this collaboration aims to expand its reach.
Following the news, a spokesman at GrapehenOS stated:
We are thrilled to be partnering with Motorola to bring GrapheneOS’s industry-leading privacy and security-focused mobile operating system to their next-generation smartphone. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in expanding the reach of GrapheneOS, and we applaud Motorola for taking this meaningful step towards advancing mobile security.
What’s next?
As the announcement implies, a new Motorola phone will be shipping with GrapheneOS pre-installed. The reference to ‘next-gen smartphone’ indicates that the device is already under development, even if Motorola is not ready to reveal the product.
It remains to be seen whether GrapheneOS support will be extended to existing Motorla devices. However, expanding beyond Pixel hardware is certainly no small undertaking, and will potentially break the Pixel monopoly on GrapeneOS-compatible hardware. More devices means more options for the end user, which is good for the project and the broader push in making robust native privacy for mobile devices an accessible standard.
Should this initiative prove commercially viable, more manufacturers could hop on board what appears to be a rekindling of privacy-first solutions to modern needs. After all, as technology evolves, users are becoming increasingly aware of threats to their personal data, and that the safest database is the one that’s never created.
Alongside the announcement, Motorola also announced an enterprise-grade analytics platform for its Moto Secure app, which automatically strips metadata from camera images when enabled.
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