Initial focus for our partnership with Motorola is a regular non-folding device. Current generation Motorola Signature (2026), Razr Fold (2026) and Razr Ultra (2026) are very close to meeting our requirements but lack MTE, adequate secure element integration and other features being added for 2027.
Flagship Snapdragon provides much better CPU and GPU performance and provide more of what's needed via isolated components on the SoC. That includes better cellular, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth and GNSS radios with solid security including good isolation. Snapdragon Pixels worked well for us and it will again.
Tensor was a sidegrade or downgrade from Snapdragon in many ways. Tensor is paired with the fantastic Titan M2/M3 which was a huge security advantage. It also brought hardware memory tagging (MTE) with the Pixel 8. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 finally shipped MTE but it's broken on the non-Elite SoC.
Next generation Snapdragon will have more mature support for MTE and greatly improved secure element support. It's still likely going to be a lot of work to get MTE fully deployed for the kernel and OS. We need all our hardware-based features including our USB-C port protection ported to it too.
These devices will meet or exceed of our official requirements including 7 years of proper updates, starting out with the Linux 6.18 LTS which can be upgraded to a new branch eventually, reset attack protection for firmware boot modes and everything else. There wasn't time to do it all for 2026.
It's very realistic to provide better security than Pixels against remote attacks. It's far harder to provide a secure element as good as the Titan M2/M3. There will definitely be a decent secure element providing the current generation features including the Android 16 QPR2+ rate limiting design.
Pixels have become much harder to support. AOSP 16 removed support for Pixels and they became harder to properly support than many other devices rather than easier. It's crucial to keep up with the major OS updates to provide all the security patches and we do but it's much harder for us now.
Motorola is doing a large portion of the work of porting GrapheneOS to their devices. They'll provide us with what we need for firmware/drivers in the form we need it and it will be far easier than Pixels. We'll be able to get issues in the firmware and drivers fixed through Motorola and Qualcomm.
We do plan to support Motorola's Razr Fold and Razr Ultra (flip) devices in addition to a regular device. We already support the original Pixel Fold (Pixel 7) along with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Pixel 10 Pro Fold. We still plan to add support for 11th gen Pixels including the Pixel 11 Pro Fold too.
Supporting a flip device with vertical folding would be a new form factor for GrapheneOS. The main use case for those is a tiny phone to use with one hand in the folded form factor. The tablet-style folding devices we already support are extremely useful for web browsing, reading, maps, etc.
@GrapheneOS excited for the new phone! Definitely gonna be a preorder or day 1 purchase for me if they're available in the US
@wafflesies Razr Fold (2026) and Razr Ultra (2026) are available in the US so hopefully the next generation ones are too. Motorola Signature (2026) wasn't available in the US but hopefully that changes.
@GrapheneOS was there also issues with not having age verification or has that bene resolved? I always found that issue kind of weird because I use Google services on GoS so my age should be verified anyways
@GrapheneOS @wafflesies oh no no, that fucking sucks, I hate folding phones. If there's not an option for a slab it's gonna be a hard pass for me.
Someone, please ask Luca Rossi to get us a new thinkphone.
FFS, Why is it so hard to get a phone that doesn't suck these days? No headphone jacks, no storage expansio or replaceable batteries, nothing on the market has decent DAC since LG exited the market.
And I was so, so looking forward to not having to buy another Pixel.
@AlexanderMars @wafflesies It's quite possible the successor to the Motorola Signature will be available in the US. If it wasn't then it could be imported. Many of our users are importing Pixels to countries where they aren't available via a package forwarding service in the US, EU or elsewhere. It's how we get phones to some of our developers too.
@GrapheneOS @AlexanderMars will that be an issue with carrier whitelists like att? I could switch carriers I guess but that'd be annoying
@wafflesies @GrapheneOS if you're in the US, some MVNO carriers like Cape or Phreeli actually encourage you to use a GrapheneOS device, probably be happy to support you if at&t won't.
@wafflesies @AlexanderMars T-Mobile will definitely work fine. We haven't heard of people having issues with this in the US though, only certain countries like Australia and Turkey.
@GrapheneOS @wafflesies from personal experience with T-Mobile based MVNOs they usually don't care where your device is from as long as the radio is compatible.
@GrapheneOS @wafflesies @AlexanderMars how is Telstra doing with graphene?
@GrapheneOS @wafflesies I've had to grey market mobiles in the past, and have no problem doing it again.
@GrapheneOS
I quess there will be blobs for firmware. Is it too much to dream that there would one day be open drivers SoC…
@GrapheneOS Motorola is a big brand in Brasil. Expect maaaaaany Brazilians benefiting from your awesome work.
I will definitely switch to GrapheneOS the moment it becomes possible in Brazil.
@GrapheneOS It going to be so nice to have a willing participant in a hardware vendor (even if the upstream code is somewhat malicious).
@GrapheneOS
I just hope at least one of the consumer focused GrapheneOS/Motorola phones is affordable for the mainstream customers. A $1,000 phone isn't in my budget regardless of how much I want one of these phones.
@GrapheneOS Why is Motorola doing this? Do they believe in your cause? Do they see the market of people who want to be degoogled?
@larsimore @GrapheneOS this is just a "theory" I've read floating around the web.
Basically it's that the security and support for the existing phones wasn't good enough for certain corporate and government contracts. By adding GrapheneOS support they can compete for contracts in high security settings, where they're losing out to Google and Apple.
@larsimore @GrapheneOS
Just a guess, but Motorola hasn't had the best reputation for supporting their phones. If GrapheneOS is doing much of the heavy lifting AND allowing Motorola to market a security focused phone, it should allow them to gain market share. This tie up should be good for both parties.
@GrapheneOS I LOVE GRAPHENEOS and the idea of it on a flip is ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
@GrapheneOS thanks for the information! I'm looking forward to seeing what the Graphene/Motorola lineup will look like when phones are ready for launch, very excited! Will any of the phone proceeds help fund the Graphene project?
@GrapheneOS I wonder if there might be issues with the new phones if GrapheneOS isn't installed in factory... For example, will that impact people who'd want to buy one on a carrier plan if the carrier locks the new phone preventing GrapheneOS installation by the user?
Sorry, just thinking out loud.
@GrapheneOS am I going to need to replace my pixel 9a running GrapheneOS?
@theyycmonk No, you can keep using it until end-of-life. We even plan to support the Pixel 11 devices.
@GrapheneOS excellent, thanks!
@GrapheneOS @theyycmonk This means a lot, thank you. I'm eyeballing an upgrade soon, but I'm not entirely sure what to do, and I want to wait and see what the Pixel 11 Graphene support looks like (if possible). Thank you for all of the hard work.
@GrapheneOS 🗣️Fkn😡😤🤬 #Google 🤦♂️
@GrapheneOS i'm very excited for this new device. Its so important for us android users to be able to regain control of our privacy. Specially after what Google is plaining.
I live in Japan so use Graphene on a pixel 9 pro fold.
Will I be able to buy a GrapheneOS Motorola here, or buy a Japanese Motorola and install Graphene?
Due to using a different NFC protocol, a Japanese phone is a bit of an imperative for me.
@tramtrist @Haikyoneko If they sell the Motorola Signature (2026), Razr Fold (2026) and Razr Ultra (2026) then the 2027 devices we're supporting will probably be available.
We don't know how the RAM and SSD shortage will impact the availability and pricing though.
They're available in Japan.
But will they be sold with graphene preinstalled, or will I be able to unlock and relock the bootloader and install Graphene myself?
@Haikyoneko @GrapheneOS @tramtrist on that note, will the install process be easier on a Motorola phone, given that it's now manufacturer supported?
@piepants @Haikyoneko @GrapheneOS I always found Graphene easy to install even years ago. Also I'm hoping they support the flip. Great form factor
It's actually piss easy on a pixel. You can connect your pixel to a pc, run the installer through a browser. Takes Literally minutes. Unlock the bootloader, flash, relock it, done.
As long as I can do this with a Japanese Motorola, I'm happy.
@Haikyoneko @piepants @GrapheneOS ya thats my experience ... I would seriously consider moving off iPhone if there is a Japanese Felica NFC flip.
@Haikyoneko @piepants Ive owned plenty. Now I dont like googles behavior and they dont have a flip model.
@Haikyoneko @piepants read up on how google has become hostile to Graphene on the pixels... @GrapheneOS had a recent post about moving off git etc...
@tramtrist @Haikyoneko @piepants They removed support for Pixels from AOSP with Android 16. Pixels had largely open source userspace device support code and were even moving to a lot of the firmware being open source. With Android 16, they completely stopped pushing any of it to AOSP. Only the Pixel kernel driver code is still available and it requires filling out this form and waiting for them to share a link to a Google Drive folder with tarballs for a tag:
@tramtrist @Haikyoneko @piepants We had to heavily overhaul how we support Pixels including reimplementing the userspace part of our USB-C port protection feature in the standard Android USB code instead of integrated inside of the Pixel USB HAL. It still works fine and we didn't really lose any features but we can no longer build most of the vendor code ourselves with extra compiler hardening. It makes it harder to resolve issues like memory corruption bugs found by MTE too. It sucks.
@GrapheneOS
Will there be any option to as graphene to existing Motorola devices? Or purchased new only?
@davidlove No, since we need the security improvements in the upcoming devices and will have our hands full supporting those.