Peace be with you guys 🌹

This is my first Fairphone with /e/OS and I'm really excited😊. It arrived within 3–4 days even though the estimated time was 2–3 weeks. That suprised me, because I live in Germany.

Everything came intact: headphones, screen protector, and phone case. They also included this little pin to get into the SIM tray slot, which I thought was great. There was no charger in the box but that's intentional on their part. Doesn't matter to me since all modern chargers work anyway.

It's really easy to use and murena has its own browser. The default search engine is Qwant, which I don't use because of Bing. But honestly, my main goal was F-Droid and using apps that reportedly won't work on Google-certified devices starting in September. I've already downloaded my own apps like IronFox and I'm happy 😁.

Now I'd love to hear your opinion: I think Google has shot itself in the foot with this decision. By closing down Android further, more people will switch to de-Googled systems.

That's my take, what do you think?🤔

@AuroraSine As a Fp5 user, I've always been satisfied with both the hw and the sw of the phone. I wish you the same! Enjoy your new device! 🎉

Thank you very much 😊🌹

I ve been wanting to do something like this. but one thing I'm not sure off is the Google compatibility 🙃🙄🙄

I can't quit it cold turkey. for instance need Google maps and it's location sharing. i would love it if the Google apps were installed on this phone as second class citizens. is this possible?

What about openstreetmap.org?

I assume using it through the browser doesn't let you do the location sharing how you need?

I use it already. but convincing the family to switch and use that is not easy. (we location share constantly for safety)

You could just install Google Maps? Like, still gives Google access to your location and movement, but it's a free device, you can put on it whatever you want.

You could also get a Fairphone with the Stock Rom, that should include Google Services. You could install a different Rom later.

There's also self hosted FOSS location sharing services, but for those, you need a server or VPS, and do some legwork to set them up.

Will fdroid stop working on my FF4 in September if I don't switch from the stock Android it came with?

Haven't even signed into the play store. I don't want it. Most apps installed by fdroid, a few from APK.

Hi, thx for your Comment.

I'm aware that you can't stop all at once. For me it was also step by step until I could boycott everything completely. Anyway, I looked into it for you. There's an "App Lounge" where you can log in with your Gmail account to access Google apps. You can also browse there anonymously. I think it's like the Aurora Store, but I'm not really familiar with that. As for Maps, Murena apparently has its own map app, but I use the one from F-Droid "OpenStreetMap". I hope I could help you.

Hello. For the answer, I'd need to know if you have a degoogled system like /e/OS.
Fairphones can be delivered either with Play Protect (Google-certified) or without it. If your device is Google-certified, it's possible your F-Droid apps might stop working then. Degoogled systems aren't affected as far as I know.

By default it will be blocked, but you can enable it by setting a developer option and waiting 24 hours. Or you can install /e/os or similar

Guess I will install e/os, that takes less than 24 hours

thanks. it looks like I can install Google maps from here. but I'm not sure it will allow location sharing to work as that needs to run in background and constantly update location

You're welcome.
So I've done some research and apparently many features won't work at all because the necessary Google background services are missing (de-googled system). I can really recommend OpenStreetMap as an alternative to you.

Exciting! I'd like to switch to /e/OS but I don't know if doing so would mean my banking app stops working. Do you have any experience with your own bank app on this OS?

Your first Fairphone 6? How many do you expect to need?

I use Organic Maps (which uses Open Street Map Data) on my Murena Fairphone 6 and it's doing a decent job.

That said, it IS a downgrade. The search is not as forgiving of typos. Also, you often won't find a local buissnes at all when searching for it by name. So i look the address up and search for it on Organic maps.

I am okay with that. It's okay to loose some convenience for not supporting an american megacorp. But i do understand that this is a personal decision to make.

i wish i could get a fairphone for the united states, but the general consensus seems to be that it lacks support for bands that can penetrate underground parking garages and subways in the united states -- places where i spend 85% of my time commuting.

i also also going to get a murena phone, but when the murena ceo made it clear that he believes that only criminals want privacy; i decided to go w graphene instead.

Honestly, as a FP4 user currently running e/OS, I never use the app lounge. It's frequently glitchy and missing apps. My most used installers are Aurora (will get you basically anything that's on the Android store) and F-Droid. I also recently installed Accrescent specifically for its IronFox app support.

Still haven't figured out if there's any way to buy paid apps, though.

@Gloomy @AuroraSine comaps on Android here. Agree with your comments totally except it being a downgrade... it is just different.

@Gloomy @AuroraSine CoMaps is an Organic Maps fork maintained by former Organic Maps developers, due to the opaque governance of Organic Maps, which is meant to become more proprietary in the future.You can take a look at CoMaps' open letter :comaps.app/news/2025-04-16/1/

Amazing, enjoy your new /e/OS. I'm planning to buy one. Since you're from Germany, how is your banking experience? Are you using any traditional German banks (like DKB, N26, Commerzbank)?

That's my only concern, but happy to hear experience from /e/OS users :-)

what evidence do you have?

Embarrassingly enough i was aware of said letter and just messed up the two when i switched phones some weeks ago 🙈

Thanks for bringing it up, i switched to Comaps now (again).

Enjoy your phone! Could you tell me if RCS messages work on Google Messages?

Thanks a lot! To your question: I ordered it directly from the official Fairphone website and paid with Klarna. There was no Problems. It arrived within a few days. I was honestly surprised by how fast that was.😊

@AuroraSine @chrand Ouch, don't use klarna if you can avoid it. The company has a bit of a notoriety of wanting to sink its customers into debt. ramseysolutions.com/debt/klarna

Thanks for your answer, but I'm asking if you installed any traditional German banking app (like DKB, Commerzbank, etc) on e/OS/, I'm curious if the bank app will work correctly in a modified Android like e/OS/. I've heard that some banks apps don't work on "non-official" Android.

Enjoy your phone! Could you tell me if RCS messages work on Google Messages?

Hello, thank you very much. So I looked into this and according to my research, RCS doesn't work on /e/OS because there are no Google services running in the background. The system is intentionally deGoogled. But this isn't personal experience, only research.

There are no issues with DKB on degoogled Android.
Commerzbank have recently started claiming non-Google phones were "rooted" (which is bullshit) and refuse app-to-app pushTAN communication. One must work around that using a (PC-based) browser and photoTAN. Motherfuckers.

Welcome, friend! I hope you enjoy yours as much as I am enjoying mine!

Might I suggest Lawnchair as your launcher?

Happy for you. Could soon be joining the club

DKB asks you to call their hotline to activate your phone. Otherwise everything is peachy.

Buy now pay later is not specific to klarna. PayPal offer the same same, curry's in the UK as well, apple and google offer it for their phones (though I think they might be a bit better with KYC). As long as you understand what it means to take out a loan it's "fine". To be clear, I think buy now pay later schemes are a disgusting band aid created so that we can keep spending more while everything gets more expensive, but don't need to single out klarna for it.

I got mine last year with the e/OS version (that's what's offered in the US). I have not used google messages specifically, but I have had trouble with RCS messages on the default messaging app

I've used mine in a subway in the US, not tried parking garages

thank you. I use open street maps already. but for location sharing I need the other people in my family to also use it. unfortunately that's not on the cards right now.

There's a setting where you can hold the lock button when the screen is locked and it turns on the flashlight for a set amount of time

I use Barclays and Lloyds successfully. Biometric fingerprint login doesn't work for Barclays but does for Lloyds.

Sorry, no. I dont use any banking Apps, so i have no experience.

Hello eldavi.
So, I've read some criticisms about /e/OS, but I don't think they effect me, because how I use my mobile its a little bit different.

For example : I won't download anything from the App Lounge. I'll use only F-Droid and avoid Google completely. I did the same thing with my Samsung phone before. Unfortunately, it's impossible to be completely free of Google on a Google-certified device😅. I could only disable all the services. That's exactly why I wanted a de-Googled systems.

GrapheneOS apparently only works on Google Pixels, which wasn't an option for me anyway. For me, this isn't just about privacy, it's about boycotting big tech companies who are involved in unethical practices, whenever possible. It's difficult, I know. You'll never be 100% secure, but I'm trying to get as close as I can.

Hello, I'm really sorry, but I don't know anything about buying apps at all. Unfortunately, I can't recommend anything to you. But I think that you have to do that directly via the Google Play Store.

As for Aurora Store or the App Lounge: I avoid them completely. I know, It's still better, and privacy-friendly, than downloading directly from Google Store, but there will always be a tiny bit of Google in the system. And I don't want that.

I try to use my phone really free of Google, and I searching more with my browser, IronFox, because in my opinion you have much more control in a browser than on an app.

Just one.

With "first Fairphone" I'm trying to say: "That is my first Fairphone in my life." I never had a Fairphone before or used /e/OS. This is my first experience.

Several Swiss banking apps work without problems on my FP4 with /e/OS.

It’s okay to loose some convenience for not supporting an american megacorp.

I'm totally agree with you. With all!! Organic Maps is a bit unusual at first, but it does good work. Sacrificing some convenience isn't the end of the world.

Ooh, that's very encouraging, thank you! At least there's hope that Triodos will work then.

Thanks for the warning. I knew Klarna has a bad reputation but I didn't know this detail. Anyway, it was really just a one-time thing. My sister used her Klarna account for it. We unfortunately couldn't pay it any other way.

But seriously, it's a shitty Show, what they're pulling there.

Thank you again.🌹

Aaaah, I see. Sorry, I misunderstood. Unfortunately, I can't help you😟. I don't use these kinds of apps at all.

Thank you! I would like to buy a degoogled phone, too. But I really need RCS since many people don't want to use Signal, Telegram, Matrix, XMPP etc. I may buy Motorola with GrapheneOS, not sure yet.