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Please excuse any grammatical errors. I used a tool to generate the transcript and haven’t had a chance to read through it yet.

So whenever there’s a new forum post about a new GrapheneOS version, there always seems to be some confusion as to why someone’s device has not received the new update yet. When they run a manual update check, it says their system is up to date, even though there should be a new version available. So today, I want to talk about how releases work and why you do not receive them as soon as they are announced.

If we check out the section about the releases on GrapheneOS.org, which I will link down below, we can see here in the last paragraph: releases are tested by the developers and are then pushed out via the Alpha channel. The release is then pushed out via the Beta channel shortly afterwards. Finally, the release is pushed out via the Stable channel after being tested by some of the users in the Beta channel. In some cases, problems are caught in the Beta channel testing, and a new release is made via the Beta channel to replace the aborted one.

So now let’s talk about what this actually means. First thing, I want to take a look at my device here. If we go into Settings, System, and we go to System Updates, and if we take a look at Release Channel under Settings, we can see here this corresponds to exactly what I just read: there’s the Stable, Beta, and Alpha. So when there’s a new forum post, like I showed earlier, that means that a new release was pushed to the Alpha channel, which is why, if you’re on the Stable channel, you don’t get it. If you’re on Beta, again, you won’t get it because it’s still in the Alpha channel. But then, as stated here, after the testing is done in Alpha and Beta, it then goes to Stable, and your phone now gets it.

So then, if we scroll down to the Devices section, we can see some more details on what I was talking about. I don’t think many people look at this often, but I think it’s useful to know where the information is, so if you need to do some troubleshooting or you need to find the answer for yourself. So if we take a look here at the Pixel 9 Fold, we can see again the three channels. We can see the version that’s in each channel, and then we just have some ways to download it over here. But back to the version—so again, let’s say there was a new version, you’d first see it in Alpha, Beta, and Stable.

So speaking of versions, I just wanted to quickly cover how version numbers are created. So, as an example, if we go down to this version number, it’s the four-digit year followed by a two-digit month, then a two-digit day. Then, for the first release of that single day, it’ll be 00. We can see that on October 17th, 2024, there was another release done on that day, which is why it ends in 01. Under each individual release, you can also see what changes were made. So I like to read this whenever a new release comes out to see what changes I can expect. It’s helpful if there was a bug you were experiencing, and you can now see that it was fixed or something like that, or a new security feature.

So you might be asking yourself: why would you want to use the Beta or Alpha channel? Maybe you want to help out with testing, which I know the team could always use more people to help test. So if you switch to Beta or Alpha, it’d be helpful to go on the forum, and then, once these releases are posted, if you experience any issues, post them there. You can also join the Matrix rooms, where they have dedicated channels for that testing. Again, you can post there. It’s usually most needed when there’s a new major Android release version. So from Android 14 to Android 15, there’s always a lot of changes, always a lot of things that need to be tested.

So there’s a couple more things I want to mention about channels. Typically, with a product, either software or something in the physical world, you might say, “This is the Alpha release” or “the Beta release,” and typically, what that means is it’s not production-ready yet. That is not the case with these releases. So when a build makes it to the Alpha channel, if there’s no problems found, that same exact build goes to the Beta channel. And again, if there’s no issues found, that same exact build goes to the Stable channel. There’s no separate build that is built. Everything is technically production-ready, and that exact same build goes through all three steps. So if you are using the Beta channel, don’t think you’re using a Beta version of GrapheneOS. Yes, the build is in the Beta channel, but if there’s no issues found, again, that’ll get pushed to Stable, and it’ll be the exact same version that you’re using in Beta.

I know that was a lot of information, so if you ever need a break, you can check out my new podcast, which is called In the Shell. It’s stories of malware, hackers, and the people who shape tech. And if you want to find out where you can listen, you can head on over to intheshellpodcast.com.

So the last thing I want to mention is that it can be kind of a pain to have to come here and read the release announcements. It can be annoying to have to come check this web page. Thankfully, they offer an Atom feed. So if you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to this URL in there, and you can easily track the feeds. If you’ve never used an RSS reader before, I talked about how I use one and the brief history of them in my latest email newsletter, which you can sign up for at sideofburritos.com.