Summary: nothing seems to have changed on my phone except for an initial notification that my device is no longer supported.
The Pixel 4a with GrapheneOS is my secondary phone where I test out apps before committing to them on my main phone and sequester less desirable apps like Whatsapp. GrapheneOS support for it ended over a year ago, so the update notification today was quite the surprise.
With Google recently rolling out an update to the 4a that cripples its battery and charging, I was very wary, knowing that at least one of the GrapheneOS maintainers intends to discourage use of older, unsupported models.
My Pixel had been on the 2024092100 release of GOS, which oddly enough is not tagged in the repo. Comparing the closest release, 2024080800, with 2025012100 yielded no differences in the code (https://github.com/GrapheneOS-Archive/device_google_sunfish/compare/2024080800-sunfish...2025012100-sunfish). So I went ahead with it.
Upon booting, I found a notification saying that my device is no longer supported with a brief explanation. I dismissed it before I could type it up here since I was worried it was a sticky nag banner. It seems that this is acting upon what was mentioned on their Mastodon some time ago:
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/111170300209864856
I’ll come back to update this post if it does become a nag notification.
However, the lack of code changes might just point to me having dismissed the warning last update and then forgetting about it. But why else would they put out an update at this point?
Regardless, I can happily say that there is no impact on my Pixel 4a’s battery life and fast charging is still allowed. I have no evidence that anything should have changed, but I’m not knowledgeable enough about the GrapheneOS code to make any promises.
Update: The notification does come back upon reboot, which was not the case before the update. It reads:
This device is no longer supported
This device stopped receiving full security updates in September 2023 and isn’t safe to use anymore regardless of OS choice. It’s strongly recommended to replace it as soon as possible. Tap to see more info.
Tapping opens up the GOS FAQ section on device support. I’ll come back in a couple days if it recurs without reboot.
Good on GOS for doing this. There are a lot of users who think using an EOL phone is not a security risk.
The Pixel 4a was released in August 2020 with a declared support period of 3 years (until August 2023).
Now it’s 2025, which means 5 years have passed. I don’t see anything weird here.
Indeed, I was happy to share that nothing weird happened and that the update does not worsen the phone, in light of the timing of this release and the lack of a changelog.
Aside from my secondary phone, convincing a couple family members to use GOS was a victory, convincing them to upgrade an otherwise perfectly functional phone is another thing. Justified or not, a bad update would not help my credibility in their eyes.
