GrapheneOS is preparing to expand beyond Google Pixel smartphones, with Motorola’s flagship and foldable devices set to gain official support for the privacy-focused Android operating system from next year.

The GrapheneOS Foundation has outlined plans to initially support a conventional Motorola flagship before expanding compatibility to the company’s Razr Fold and Razr Ultra foldable smartphones.

The move would be significant for GrapheneOS, which has so far officially supported Google’s Pixel devices. It would also make the Razr Ultra the first flip-style smartphone to officially run GrapheneOS.

GrapheneOS is an open-source operating system based on Android that places a particularly strong emphasis on privacy and security. Its strict hardware requirements have limited the number of smartphones considered suitable for official support.

According to the organisation, Motorola’s current Signature and Razr models come close to satisfying those requirements, but still fall short in areas including mature hardware memory tagging and secure element integration.

GrapheneOS expects those limitations to be addressed by the next generation of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processors. As a result, the organisation is targeting Motorola’s 2027 smartphone generation rather than adding support for the current models.

The first compatible Motorola phones are expected to sit firmly at the premium end of the market. GrapheneOS has previously indicated that its initial Motorola devices will use higher-end hardware than Google’s Pixel phones and will also carry higher prices.

More affordable Motorola devices could eventually follow, although there are additional hurdles. GrapheneOS says Qualcomm would need to improve security capabilities in its less expensive processors, while Motorola would need to provide seven years of software support for compatible devices.

That represents a considerable step up from the support offered with some of Motorola’s current mid-range smartphones. The 2026 Moto G Stylus, for example, launched in the US at US$499.99, approximately A$745, and is promised only two major operating system upgrades and three years of security updates.

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Motorola first revealed its collaboration with GrapheneOS in March, with the companies working together to improve smartphone security. GrapheneOS says Motorola is completing a substantial portion of the work required to port the operating system to its hardware.

Google Pixel owners are not being abandoned as GrapheneOS broadens its hardware support. The organisation also intends to add compatibility for Google’s new Pixel 11 series.

However, GrapheneOS says changes to Android Open Source Project support for Pixel smartphones have made Google’s devices more difficult to properly support than some alternatives.

Motorola’s involvement could therefore mark an important shift for GrapheneOS. Expanding to conventional flagships, book-style foldables and eventually flip phones would give privacy-conscious Android users a much wider choice of hardware than the Pixel-only selection currently available.