this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2025
54 points (98.2% liked)
Privacy
2643 readers
7 users here now
Icon base by Lorc under CC BY 3.0 with modifications to add a gradient
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm carrier locked until my phone is paid off, so I can't do anything until after that. I'm probably going to go with Graphene since I have a Pixel. Admittedly, my reason for switching is less to do with privacy (though I would like to have more than stock offers) and more to do with Google's upcoming restrictions on installing apps from non-registered developers. If I wanted a corporation telling me what I can do with my phone then I'd just go back to iOS.
This isn't related to carrier locking. If your Pixel is a carrier branded model, there is a high chance the bootloader is permanently locked. Verizon especially.
Hopefully that's not the case. I'm not on Verizon, but my carrier does use their network. According to my carrier's support pages they'll automatically unlock the phone a couple days after it's paid off, which for me is in a month or two.
Did you buy your phone from that carrier? Because if you did, then it's a Verizon model (because it's carrier locked and running on the Verizon network), and will have a permanently locked bootloader. You can check this by going into the phone's Developer Settings and finding the "OEM Unlocking" toggle. If it's greyed out....Sorry bud.
Hopefully. But please keep in mind that SIM unlocking (i.e. locked to a carrier) is not related to bootloader unlocking. Far too many people get confused over this concept.
Well, that's unfortunate.