GrapheneOS’s big hardware debut is more than a year away

GrapheneOS is a privacy-focused Android fork. Think of it like a sophisticated custom ROM developed solely to protect your privacy, including those from zero-day vulnerabilities and other threat factors. For the longest time, GrapheneOS was exclusively available for Pixel phones. Then, just a month ago, the team confirmed it is working with a top-tier OEM to launch phones with official GrapheneOS support. Now, we have a slightly more concrete timeline of when the first such phone could launch.

In an interview with YouTuber David Bombal, GrapheneOS community manager, MetropleX, revealed that the first GrapheneOS-supported devices could arrive in Q4 2026 or early 2027.

That’s over a year from now. Given the uncertainties involved, though, there’s always a possibility that the release timeline could further slip.

It’s still unclear which OEM GrapheneOS is working with. The team behind the privacy-focused ROM has so far only confirmed that they have partnered with a “major OEM” and will release devices featuring a flagship Snapdragon SoC “for the best security and support time.” These phones will launch in multiple countries and will be priced similarly to Pixels.

The GrapheneOS team has also already confirmed that this top-tier OEM won’t launch a new lineup of devices with support for their ROM. Instead, it would be a future version of a phone already on sale, say, like the Galaxy S27 or S28.

GrapheneOS builds for Pixel 10 coming soon

Given its Pixel exclusivity, you’d think GrapheneOS must already be compatible with the Pixel 10. Yet months after launch, the Pixel 10 remains unsupported.

The team has provided an update on this front as well. It is currently prioritizing the stable rollout of Android 16 QPR1. It has already seeded the first non-experimental Android 16 QPR1-based build with several notable changes.

Following this, the team will integrate the monthly security patches while also working on adding support for the Pixel 10 family (via @GrapheneOS). If anything, that means this indicates the first GrapheneOS builds for the Pixel 10 should arrive within the next few weeks.

Google will soon push Android 16 QPR2, but if it delays releasing the source code to AOSP as it did with QPR1, it could take a while before GrapheneOS can rebase its ROM.