Google’s Update Ruined My Phone—Here’s How I Fixed It
About Google Fiasco on owners of Pixel 4a devices
A few weeks ago, I noticed a decrease in the battery performance of my Google Pixel 4a. I didn't have time to investigate further, but while the battery used to last over 24 hours, I now had to recharge my phone just 2 or 3 hours after a full charge. Really?. I knew something was going one, perhaps my phone that I have for more than 3 years was too old and need a replacement 🤔.
But I decided to investigate a bit more and it took me few seconds to realize I was not the only one with that problem recently. My problem was basically in the news!.
Basically what happened is that in January of this year, Google launched the “Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program“.
Google has determined that certain Pixel 4a phones require a software update to improve the stability of their battery’s performance. An automatic update would reduce battery life and charging performance for some "Impacted Devices." Affected customers had one year to choose from three options: sending in their phone for a battery replacement, receiving $50 (or the local equivalent), or getting $100 in Google Store credit toward a new Pixel phone. The support document did not mention any safety or hazard concerns.
I am not going into the details. There are good articles out there expanding the information. I recommend specifically this one who said they reach out directly to Google about this problem and they tried to get answers.
I am just listing Google’s response from the mentioned article:
It seems to have been built by a Google engineer "on their personal machine, not the proper buildsystem."
There is no source provided, as would normally be required of a Linux kernel build, though it may only need to be provided on request under the GNU General Public License.
The maximum charge voltage of certain battery profiles changes from 4.44 volts to 3.95, which would mean batteries cannot charge to anywhere near their former potential.
There are two main battery profiles, with distinct "ATL" and "LSN" markers; Martin suggests they relate to Amperex Technology Limited and Lishen, manufacturers of battery cells.
LSN-tagged batteries assigned the "debug" profile can see capacity reduced from 3,080 milliamp hours (mAh) to 1,539 mAh.
To me, this is a fiasco from Google, forcing users to update phones that were working perfectly. We've seen a similar situation with Apple in the past.
Grapehene OS (Open Source) to the Rescue
I didn't give up. After a few hours of research, I decided to replace my phone's operating system with GrapheneOS, and I couldn't be happier! 😃
It is a privacy and security focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility developed as a non-profit open source project.
I will leave some remarks about my transition to Graphene:
No Google apps or services: If you want and no need any Google apps you can have an Android phone without it. GrapheneOS will never include either Google Play services or another implementation of Google services like microG. Perhaps, it is still possible to install Google Play services and you can install and use any app from the store. On Graphene it is done by a set of fully sandboxed apps without special privileges via our sandboxed Google Play compatibility layer.
No passive listening services: You won’t have those apps which continuously monitor for wake words and process conversations to offer recommendations
More battery life: The most important thing is that the problem caused by Google's fiasco is gone, and the battery now performs just as it did before the update. Plus, without any passive listening services, the battery lasts even longer!.
Bank’ apps: They are a bit problematic to make them run in Graphene. It's likely to work but there's no guarantee. There is a list of Banking Applications Compatibility with GrapheneOS. Check this out if this is very important for you!. I use 3 or 4 bank’s apps and 2 of them didn’t work. Not a big deal for me but worth to mention.
End Of Life support: For the Google Pixel 4a, Graphene OS does not provided any more firmware or driver security updates, and receive extended support from GrapheneOS via a legacy branch based on Android 13 with only the Android Open Source Project security backports, certain other security patches, and other minimal changes to keep them working. Not a big deal for me, what I have now is way better than before shipped by Google originally on my Pixel. Check out the list of supported devices on Graphene OS.
Conclusions
What started as a frustrating experience turned into an opportunity to take full control of my device. I discovered a better, more secure, and privacy-respecting alternative ♥️. My Pixel 4a now runs smoother and battery lasts longer.