GrapheneOS: No secure Android for the Pixel 11 because Google is sloppy?

Google has apparently made changes to the security features of the Pixel 11 series, which now mean that the makers of the “highly secure” Android variant GrapheneOS cannot bring their operating system to the new Pixel models.

Google may want to reduce costs

Google has been equipping its Pixel series smartphones with support for the so-called Memory Tagging Extensions (MTE) since the eighth generation. This security feature is part of the ARM architecture, which forms the basis of the Google Tensor G series processors. However, MTE support appears to be missing on the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

This is the conclusion reached by the developers GrapheneOS a variant of Android that is designed for maximum security and is primarily used by users who place great value on data protection and privacy. GrapheneOS was recently offered exclusively on Pixel devices because only these had the MTE memory protection.

No MTE support on Pixel 11

This year, however, the GrapheneOS team does not seem to be able to offer a version of its operating system for the latest generation of Pixel smartphones. In one Series of Mastodon posts It was heard that GrapheneOS could only be partially ported to the Pixel 11 series smartphones because there was no support for ARM memory tagging implemented in hardware in the software, firmware and almost certainly also in the hardware.

The developers assume that Google removed the technical basis for MTE support in order to save costs. Google may be of the opinion that the usefulness of MTE in everyday life is not enough to justify the effort required to integrate it.

Team wants to focus on Motorola hardware

MTE increases the security of memory access and was previously activated in the regular editions of Android whenever the operating system’s “Extended Protection Mode” was activated. The additional memory check slows down the performance of the respective device somewhat and there is no general support from all apps, which is why MTE has always remained an optional feature on the Pixel smartphones introduced to date. Because MTE is used on a large scale in GrapheneOS for almost all parts of the operating system base, there is currently no way to use the new Pixel 11 smartphones with the highly secure Android alternative.

Although the developers expressly praised the fact that Google has invested in the security of its devices elsewhere, there is currently no clear path forward when it comes to their own product. It is not yet clear how the GrapheneOS team will deal with the situation, it said. It is conceivable that one could skip the Pixel 11 series and rather concentrate on the cooperation with Motorola, as part of which the first high-end smartphones will officially come onto the market with GrapheneOS ex works this year.