Summary
- LineageOS 21 is releasing its stable build earlier than usual, thanks to previous efforts to adapt to Android 12, 13, and the simpler requirements of Android 14.
- LineageOS 21 includes updates to various Lineage apps, such as a revamped Aperture camera app and a Material You redesign for system apps like calculator, gallery, dialer, and messages.
- The LineageOS team has created a SoC-specific common kernel base for Snapdragon SoCs, aiming for faster rollout of new builds and reduced effort. They have also made other improvements and contributions to various apps and utilities.
There is hardly any other custom ROM for Android as popular as LineageOS. The ROM has been around for years and is available for a wide range of devices, keeping them relevant and in a working state for years after the original device maker abandoned them. Typically, the team behind LineageOS is quick to release unofficial builds of their ROM after a new Android version drops. A stable release arrives after a few months, usually in April of the following year. With LineageOS 21, the team is besting its previous efforts and dropping its stable build almost two months before its usual timeframe.
The quick LineageOS 21 release was made possible by the team’s previous efforts to adapt Android 12 and 13’s UI changes and the relatively simple Android 14 requirements. In addition to bringing the latest release of Android, LineageOS 21 improves many of the Lineage apps.
The ROM’s Aperture camera app features a revamped interface and supports all the new video features enabled by the updated CameraX API, such as HDR video recording. System apps like calculator, gallery, dialer, and messages have also received their long overdue Material You redesign.
For faster rollout of new builds and to reduce extra effort from their end, the LineageOS team has created a SoC-specific common kernel base for many Snapdragon SoCs.
Below is the official release note highlighting the major changes in LineageOS 21:
- Security patches from January 2023 to February 2024 have been merged to LineageOS 18.1 through 21.
-
Glimpse of Us
: We now have a shining new app, Glimpse! It will become the default gallery app starting from LineageOS 21 - An extensive list of applications were heavily improved or redesigned:
- Aperture: A touch of Material You, new video features, and more!
- Calculator: Complete Material You redesign
- Contacts: Design adjustments for Material You
- Dialer: Large cleanups and code updates, Material You and bugfixes
- Eleven: Some Material You design updates
- Jelly: Refreshed interface, Material You and per-website location permissions
- LatinIME: Material You enhancements, spacebar trackpad, fixed number row
- Messaging: Design adjustments for Material You
- A brand new boot animation by our awesome designer Vazguard!
- SeedVault and Etar have both been updated to their newest respective upstream version.
- WebView has been updated to Chromium 120.0.6099.144.
- We have further developed our side pop-out expanding volume panel.
- Our Updater app should now install A/B updates much faster (thank Google!)
- We have contributed even more upstream changes and improvements to the FOSS
Etar
calendar app we integrated some time back! - We have contributed even more changes and improvements back upstream to the
Seedvault
backup app. - Android TV builds still ship with an ad-free Android TV launcher, unlike Google’s ad-enabled launcher – most Android TV Google Apps packages now have options to use the Google ad-enabled launcher or our ad-restricted version.
- Our merge scripts have been largely overhauled, greatly simplifying the
Android Security Bulletin
merge process, as well as making supporting devices like Pixel devices that have full source releases much more streamlined. - Our extract utilities can now extract from OTA images and factory images directly, further simplifying monthly security updates for maintainers on devices that receive security patches regularly.
- LLVM has been fully embraced, with builds now defaulting to using LLVM bin-utils and optionally, the LLVM integrated assembler. For those of you with older kernels, worry not, you can always opt-out.
- A global Quick Settings light mode has been developed so that this UI element matches the device’s theme.
- Our Setup Wizard has seen adaptation for Android 14, with improved styling, more seamless transitions, and significant amounts of legacy code being stripped out.
- The developer-kit (e.g. Radxa 0, Banana Pi B5, ODROID C4, Jetson X1) experience has been heavily improved, with UI elements and settings that aren’t related to their more restricted hardware feature-set being hidden or tailored!
LineageOS 21 brings a major name change as well. The team will no longer follow the subversion naming scheme as before. This will allow it to align its custom ROM’s naming scheme with Google’s quarterly maintenance release model. So, despite the ROM’s latest release being based on Android 14 QPR 1, it is referred to as LineageOS 21 and not 21.1.
With the first LineageOS 21 stable builds rolling out, the team is dropping support for LineageOS 19.1. It is not deprecating LineageOS 18.1 to ensure support for older devices, though its codebase is on a feature freeze.
You can grab LineageOS 21 from the revamped download portal. If you are upgraded from an older official build of LineageOS, you don’t need to wipe your phone. But if you are switching from an unofficial build, a wipe is recommended to avoid issues.
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