There are some that prefer to use custom ROMs on their devices and often for many reasons. The biggest, most popular custom ROM in the game is LineageOS and it has today rolled out Android 9.0 in the form of LineageOS 16.0, something many manufacturers struggle to do.
LineageOS is entirely a community ROM run by volunteers. Over the past few months they have been working hard to get it ready for the millions of users worldwide. With LineageOS 16.0 they are bringing more features and reliability and a lot of improvements to already included features.
They have also made LineageOS compatible with the default implementation of dark mode that Google have been preparing Android for. Their launcher, Trebuchet has gained the ability to hide apps and then requiring authentication before they will open.
LineageOS 16.0 will be launching with a “small” selection of devices at this stage with nightlies rolling out from today. They can be downloaded from their download portal or using the updater app built into previous versions. The changelog for version 16.0 Pie includes:
- It’s now possible to set custom automatic update check intervals in the updater (never / once a day, once a week / once a month)
- Calculator now supports dark mode through Styles API
- Added “Mark as read” action in messages notifications
- Exchange support
- December 2018, January 2019 and February 2019 security patches have been merged
- Webview has been updated to Chromium 71.0.3578.99
The list of devices that are already running LineageOS 16.0 is extensive although they call is a small amount and puts so many manufacturers to shame:
Initial 16.0 devices
| Device name | Wiki | Maintainers | Previous builds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential PH-1 | mata | haggertk, intervigil, rashed | |
| Google Nexus 6 | shamu | elektroschmock, npjohnson, razorloves | 15.1 |
| Google Pixel 2 | walleye | rashed, raymanfx | |
| Google Pixel 2 XL | taimen | rashed, raymanfx | |
| Google Pixel 3 | blueline | rashed, raymanfx | |
| Google Pixel 3 XL | crosshatch | rashed, raymanfx | |
| Google Pixel Ultra (prototype p2) | shark | rastley | |
| Google Pixel | sailfish | intervigil, razorloves | 15.1 |
| Google Pixel XL | marlin | intervigil, razorloves | 15.1 |
| Huawei Honor View 10 | berkeley | luk1337 | |
| Huawei P20 Pro | charlotte | luk1337 | |
| Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Plus Wi-Fi | YTX703F | quallenauge, christianciach, vladimiroltean | 15.1 |
| Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Plus LTE | YTX703L | quallenauge, christianciach, vladimiroltean | 15.1 |
| Motorola Moto Z2 Force | nash | erfanoabdi, npjohnson | 15.1 |
| OnePlus One | bacon | jrior, npjohnson | 15.1 |
| OnePlus 3 | oneplus3 | dianlujitao | 15.1 |
| OnePlus 5 | cheeseburger | amartinz, codeworkx, jrizzoli, jumoog, xingrz | 15.1 |
| OnePlus 5T | dumpling | amartinz, codeworkx | 15.1 |
| OnePlus 6 | enchilada | luca020200, luk1337, maniac103 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 Wi-Fi (2016) | gts28vewifi | luca020200, luk1337, mccreary | 15.1 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 Wi-Fi (2016) | gts210vewifi | luca020200, luk1337, mccreary | 15.1 |
| Sony Xperia XA2 | pioneer | cdesai, luk1337, stricted | 15.1 |
| Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra | discovery | chenji, luk1337 | 15.1 |
| Xiaomi Mi MIX A1 | tissot | thescarastic | 15.1 |
| Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S | polaris | bgcngm | |
| Xiaomi Mi Note 3 | jason | dianlujitao | 15.1 |
| Xiaomi Poco F1 | beryllium | bgcngm, warabhishek | |
| Zuk Z1 | ham | sb6596 | 15.1 |
I hope those manufacturers who are late to update and those who never/rarely update take a good hard look at what unpaid volunteers are doing and doing extremely well and successfully. If only they treated their paying customers the way LineageOS treats their non-paying free customers.
