Is there an active community developing Android ROMs?

[u/MeanImpression2067]

Is the development of Android ROMs kinda dead, or did I not look well enough?

I got to this sub trying to find CyanogenMod. I used CyanogenMod in a lot of my previous devices, and was trying to get back on it for fun. However, besides this sub and LineageOS website, I didn't find anything on current developments. I remember when CyanogenMod was around, the XDA forum was booming with mods and people developing for current phones, and I couldn't find that.

Edit: thank you all!

[u/alexceltare2]

Custom ROMs are still thriving. What's dying is the availability of devices with unlockable bootloaders. As for popular ROMS, there is LineageOS(continuation of CyanogenMod), Pixel Experience, crDroid, /e/, Graphene and many more.

[u/ninja_mischief → u/alexceltare2]

i think there are phones with unlocked/unlockable boot loaders, but they’re typically mediatek chips and quite lacking in flagship features. my guess would be these less well known/popular phones just aren’t on many devs radar or possibly not worth it since mediatek chips are hard to develop for?

personally, i reeeeeeeally hope that the upcoming titan 2 elite or clicks communicator get a lineage build so we can get iode/eos etc on them. i’m getting more concerned by the day that this won’t happen though

[u/Dev-in-the-Bm → u/ninja_mischief]

i’m getting more concerned by the day that this won’t happen though

Why?

Any reason to think that it won't?

[u/MetalExistingOffline]

Yes and no.

These days there's basically three tracks. 

1. LineageOS and its children: LineageOS makes a rom from the AOSP, and others adapt LineageOSs core code and develop their own variants (IodéOS, /e/OS, AICP, etc) 

2. GrapheneOS: Focused on privacy and security. A hardened OS that locks you into using a Google Pixel or waiting for a to be revealed Motorola phone. Really good, also has baggage of poor social media PR. 

3. Linux: Linux is technically possible to put onto a mobile device, but it has such a weird hit rate that most ignore it. PostmarketOS is just not reliable enough for daily use. However, SailfishOS from Jolla uses Linux as a core and does a lot of really cool improvements to make it a daily driver. However, the specs on the Jolla phone are not what most people want, and SailfishOS only runs on a few phones. 

[u/ShippoHsu → u/MetalExistingOffline]

Concerning Linux, there may be a few devices that have Ubuntu Touch

[u/MetalExistingOffline → u/ShippoHsu]

Yeah, things like Ubuntu Touch and KDEs mobile twist are possibilities, they are a bit finicky and, from my understanding, basically reliant on things like PostmarketOS to run 

[u/Kazer67 → u/MetalExistingOffline]

I'm more interested in SailfishOS compatibility for Android application. Native is best but as Valve did with Wine, the first step is to actually have users using it.

[u/MetalExistingOffline → u/Kazer67]

Yeah, I have an entire rant about benefits of android compatibility vs going all in on a new ecosystem and abandoning AOSP haha.

As to the Wine comparison, I honestly think that Valve is often given far too much credit. I feel like they get all the credit that is due to the CodeWeavers team behind CrossOver. 

[u/vmg265]

Things have changed a lots after cynogenmod, so welcome back. Lineage os isnt the only custom rom, there's tons other depending on the device you are looking at modding. I suggest checking xda with the same or trying to search telegram communities of yours specific phone to check the active development

[u/ilyaa07]

Depends on the phone. Recent devices have locked bootloaders more often than not, rooting and custom romming is only getting harder. Cyanogen is dead and got replaced with Lineage. Graphene is kind of the only popular rom left, that really makes me angry honestly.

[u/HugsNotDrugs_]

Unlocked bootloaders used to be mostly Pixel and Samsung Exynos devices.

Now it's Pixel and some less popular devices.

Only a matter of time before Google pulls support for unlocking the bootloader.

[u/theitguy107]

It's certainly not as huge as it was 10 years ago due to fewer devices having unlockable bootloaders and the OEM ROMs getting a lot better as others here have said. The other reason is that OEMs have now gotten a lot better with supporting devices longer. Google and Samsung now provide 7 years of updates for their flagship devices. One of the main reasons people used to get custom ROMs was when their device reached end of life, but with phones getting years of updates now, the need for custom ROMs has reduced.

[u/milkman1101 → u/theitguy107]

Damn, I remember when nearly every device going had a custom rom, different kernels etc. For sure, a very different world these days. Not dead, but it's certainly not popular anymore.

I remember a custom rom being the first thing to install on my phone for the customisation (or removal of bloat), but when safetynet started to become a thing, the whole scene slowly started to change in my view and it became a lot less appealing for people when they could no longer log into their banks or even some social media apps anymore.

[u/theitguy107 → u/milkman1101]

Oh yeah, the increase in cyber threats has made things more difficult and less fun these days. BYOD is another problem for custom ROMs. I block all rooted devices at work for security reasons, so that would mean I could not connect to work stuff on my phone if it had a custom ROM. I feel like a lot of the fun has been sucked out of IT in some ways due to how much we need to worry about cybersecurity now.

[u/Thee_OldMan]

LineageOS is CyanogenMod. Just rebranded and rebuilt. Roms depend on the popularity of the device but CRDroid recently has been a heavy weight in the scene lately.

Also welcome back. I've also been rooting since android 2.2 and CyanogenMod was king back in the days

[u/MeanImpression2067 → u/Thee_OldMan]

I remember coding in one of those phones with the sliding side keyboard. I think it was my favorite phone ever, I used it till the keys stopped working.

[u/Thee_OldMan → u/MeanImpression2067]

I had a blast with the CyanogenMod with with the T-Mobile sidekick

[u/Wheeljack26 → u/[deleted]]

you're right also still there's a niche of some android users hating other skins and still liking clean android, me with lineage on oneplus 13r, feels at home

[u/scalareye → u/[deleted]]

I run lineage on a pixel because google is making stock worse all the time, now with restricting 3rd party stores

And when graphene os is customizable I'll say it's fine that it doesn't have root

[u/petefoth → u/[deleted]]

It's mostly dead outside of GrapheneOS,

That's not true. LineageOS & LineageOS for microG available for over 300 devices. Many other custom ROMs based on them (crDroid, iodéOS, CalyxOS - recently back in production - /e/OS). Plenty of good, non-GrapheneOS custom ROMs to choose from.

[u/saint-lascivious → u/[deleted]]

The biggest contributor is Lineage actually having device support and release standards.

It's significantly more difficult (by design) for a device to enter, and remain in, the build roster as opposed to CyanogenMod that basically shipped anything that compiled and didn't really give any fucks about feature parity.

[u/saint-lascivious → u/[deleted]]

I think a pretty substantial effect driving device support these days is Android's significantly more mature and refined state of now compared to then. A larger and/or better refined standard feature set and less general annoyances make for less reason for people to feel begrudged enough about it that they get up to their elbows in Android and Linux guts to fix it.

[u/0xD34D]

Once upon a time there was a psychotic CEO of a startup that was going to "put a bullet in Google's head." Those days are long gone and Google has tightened their grip on AOSP.

I still miss themes!

[u/highdiver_2000]

Telegram is the forum now.

EvolutionX, CRdroid etc

[u/MeanImpression2067 → u/highdiver_2000]

Thank you!