Motorola announced a long-term partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation at Mobile World Congress on March 2, 2026.
GrapheneOS is an open-source operating system based on the Android Open Source Project, focused on security and privacy. It is known for its strict hardware security requirements and currently officially supports only select Google Pixel devices.
According to the announcement, through this collaboration, Motorola and the GrapheneOS Foundation will work to strengthen smartphone security and design future Motorola devices compatible with GrapheneOS.
The companies will collaborate on research, software enhancements, and new security features. Additional details will be provided in the coming months.
A distinctive feature of GrapheneOS is that it does not include Google apps or Google Play services by default. Users may install Google Play services as fully sandboxed apps without special system privileges, preserving the project’s security-focused approach.
Moreover, GrapheneOS compatibility requires hardware that meets strict security standards, which typically aligns with higher-end devices featuring strong hardware-backed security and long-term update support. It is not yet known if Motorola will initially focus on its flagship lineup.
In light of this, no specific device models or release timelines have been announced. While the companies have outlined a long-term strategic collaboration, product details have not yet been disclosed.
For more information, refer to Motorola’s announcement.
grapheneos is basically the only thing that defeats Cellebrite since even regular pixels can be hacked into that do not have grapheneos. The latest version of Cellebrite is a awful piece of software it can even hack into the newest iphones easily.
Motorola is owned by Lenovo which has been caught installing spyware into their computers and electronics many times. A Chinese phone is a terrible choice for anyone concerned with privacy or security. GrapheneOS betrayed their local user base.
That was SuperFish; a up and coming Israeli company based in the US which was the next big tech golden child to print money out of nowhere before the community caught on to their actual business model. Unfortunately for Lenovo they just signed up with SuperFish, but fortunately for them it was only on a few of their non enterprise machines. At the time SuperFish had over 80 million users which they were farming (and no they were not all Lenovo laptops).
samsung is a no go since they basically hate alternative os’s and google holding back the device tree is causing issues and there is no other devices that could even meet graphene’s requirements and there is a reddit post on this that explains it better then I can.
Actually it’s perfect because the end user can use the auditor app built into graphene to independently verify device integrity directly with the graphene system thereby eliminating the OEM from the equation. Actually providing a superior level of trust and security compared to incumbents.
How long will this last before it is shut down by other interested parties.
I have a couple of old commodity smartphones lying around, a couple years old but still in good order. A cheap Samsung and a cheap Motorola. It sure would be nice if I could flash them with a new Linux OS so I can use them as a highly energy efficient mini-cluster/PC/cyberdeck. Graphene (or another mobile distro on DistroWatch) could be the ticket — IF the hardware can be made to accept the new OS!
Wow
“The company unveiled a partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation, to bring cutting-edge security to everyday users across the globe.”
“In the coming months, Motorola and the GrapheneOS Foundation will continue to collaborate on joint research, software enhancements, and new security capabilities, with more details and solutions to roll out as the partnership evolves.”
I do not trust Motorola. What they call partnership may end up as organ trade, with the GrapheneOS Foundation being the organ donor. The owners (users) of the phones will most likely be locked out of their own devices and tracked by a pathetic surveillance regime, just like with Android or iOS.
Its most likley a partnership that lets motorola gain security improvements that they can use in there oem version of android while also allowing people to install grapheneos on the phone also. Google has been making it harder to update grapheneos on pixels and a oem partnership is almost needed. Plus I am guessing this is going to be a high end motorola device with whats required to make grapheneos secure from physical attacks.
That’s not how Android works especially involving Google Apps. Everyone has access to the open source version. Then they work with the chipset vendors for the binary driver blobs (who have to get their stuff signed off by Google in most cases as well). Then the phone maker needs to work with Google to get the Google Apps approved for their device. Then they add on their bloatware which Moto is pretty light on and its useful (man I miss chop to turn on flashlight etc). Then maybe the network operator will slap on their bloatware.
Now I think you are on about Moto customizing android to the extent that Samsung does, but Moto doesn’t do that. If you have used a Moto phone in the past 10 years or more you would know that they very much don’t deviate from the stock Android experience.
Now what it does do is allow the user to keep their GrapheneOS phones updated for much longer as Moto doesn’t support their phones for that many years for their own spin, basically that task is farmed out!
you have no idea what you are taking about. the standard moto android os will still be separate but graphene will help make it more secure with the partnership and graphene will still have there own android version that can be installed on a motorola device but they gain easier access to the device tree for updates. Graphene will still rely on motorola for the latest android os updates then add there own stuff and graphene does not even need google apps but you can install play services and play store if you choose after installing grapheneos directly from graphene.
Amazing after some of things google has been doing this is actually good news.