I cannot use a custom ROM as I need apps that sadly enforce the Google Play Integrity API, and no GrapheneOS with Google Play Services dose not passes this check.
I am stuck between an iPhone and a Google Pixel.
I have government apps and a work app on my phone that I do not want to route through a VPN or any other type of proxy(All apps are in the Android privet spaces). The only thing I need to go through a VPN/proxy is my browser (I know brave have a VPN in their browser but I don’t want to use or pay for it and the DuckDuckGo vpn is system wide and the Firefox vpn does not have a Firefox exstention on iOS or android). I need to be able to change countries myself (I don’t think you can do that with Apple’s Private Relay), as I live in the EU and ID checks for social media, other things, and maybe even Wikipedia are coming soon. Android support split tunneling but iOS don’t.
I need to have Facebook Messenger installed on my phone and active all the time (I cannot put it into the private space feature on Android).
I use another service for mail and backup, so iCloud end-to-end encryption is not a plus for me.
I don’t communicate much over SMS, but I would be able to chat over iMessage instead of Facebook Messenger with some contacts.
It’s not necessary to have the app installed, but in reality, it is.
I had tried to mitigate it by using Android’s private spaces, but I now use it in a web browser on my phone but I don’t get notifications