GoKawiil
Tech News
GrapheneOS developers discovered that Google's Pixel 11 phones do include hardware support for Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) after examining code in the Android 17 QPR2 Beta 4 release. This contradicts the project's earlier assessment, made just days prior, that the phones lacked MTE and its accompanying warning against purchasing them.
The GrapheneOS development team says it could not finish porting its security-focused Android build to Google's new Pixel 11 phones because the devices lack support for Arm's memory tagging extension (MTE), a hardware-level security feature. Developers say they built a partial port after a week of effort but had to halt the project, calling the omission an apparent cost-cutting move by Google. As a result, the team may abandon future support for Pixel devices and focus instead on Motorola hardware.
The GrapheneOS project has said that Google's upcoming Pixel 11 will no longer support hardware Memory Tagging Extension (MTE), a security feature present in recent Pixel devices. The announcement came via a social media post rather than a detailed report, so specifics on why the feature was removed remain unclear.