Our initial highly experimental release for the Pixel 9a is now available for both CLI and web install via https://staging.grapheneos.org/.

We’ve tested both install methods and did basic testing of functionality including Wi-Fi, camera, audio, etc. Feedback is needed from users now.

We’ve tested the over-the-air upgrade path for the Pixel 9a internally via a sample update with no changes. We usually only use these sample updates internally for testing the upgrade path of each release. However, for broader testing, we’re releasing it through each channel now.

First update from the initial 2025041200 release to the new 2025041201 release has no changes beyond build date and build number. The incremental (delta) update package is only 158KiB despite it shipping the full new firmware and OS images. We tested a full update package too.

Basic functionality has been tested for a while along with the upgrade path via both our System Updater app and recovery. It no longer needs to be considered highly experimental. Therefore, experimental Pixel 9a releases are now available on our regular production website too.

All of the standard Android and GrapheneOS functionality should already be working on the Pixel 9a including our hardware-based USB-C port control feature, hardware memory tagging, etc.

Main work was dealing with the temporary QPR1-based device branch (https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114320149441258698).

GrapheneOS for the Pixel 9a support is no longer considered experimental. Since it’s still based on Android 15 QPR1 upstream, it’s missing some recent improvements in Android and GrapheneOS but we backported most post-QPR2 GrapheneOS changes and it’ll be on mainline Android soon.