Wait what do the android updates have to do with Graphene? Does the phone need to still be supported by Google and android for Graphene to be secure and work?
Yes. Many security updates come from upstream AOSP and then are put into GOS.
So when a device has stopped getting AOSP updates, it is unreasonable for GOS to continue support it. They can and I believe they have applied more critical security patches to just barely EOL devices, but this isn’t promised or expected.
Wait what do the android updates have to do with Graphene? Does the phone need to still be supported by Google and android for Graphene to be secure and work?
Graphene stops shipping any updates after the Google deadline
https://grapheneos.org/faq#legacy-devices
Yes. Many security updates come from upstream AOSP and then are put into GOS.
So when a device has stopped getting AOSP updates, it is unreasonable for GOS to continue support it. They can and I believe they have applied more critical security patches to just barely EOL devices, but this isn’t promised or expected.
They could just apply the patches they do have like the main android ones. I think that is BS personally