Android Archive
LineageOS has released its first version based on Android 17 – earlier than expected. We’ve been hard at work rebasing all of our changes and features since Android 17’s release in June. Android 17’s first release mainly contained iterative improvements and some UI/UX refinements, but due to our previous efforts adapting to Google’s heavy refactoring over the last several versions, we were able to rebase onto Android 17’s code-base faster than anticipated. Yes you read that right: We’re early this year! ↫ LineageOS’ changelog written by Nolen Johnson This release also includes the latest Android security patches (October 2026), as well as a brand new browser-based USB flash tool to make installation easier. Many of the applications included with LineageOS have also been updated and improved, like its music player, image editor, web browser, and so on. The project also did a full accessibility audit of its installation process and application suite, which has already resulted in severalk accessibility improvements. LineageOS serves as the base for countless custom Android ROMs, so it’s great to see the project do this well.
A few months ago, Google announced it was going to put Android on laptops (and eventually, desktops), serving as eventual replacements for Chromebooks. Unlike those, though, these new Android laptops wouldn’t be low-quality, cheap, underpowered devices for school children to spill milk on, but devices actually competitive with Windows and macOS laptops. Today, the company finally allowed the press to use these new things. Google describes Googlebook as a “totally fresh approach to computing,” bringing together Android, ChromeOS, Gemini, and premium laptop hardware from major manufacturers. The idea is to create a laptop that feels more natural to use for Android phone users while retaining what makes a desktop OS useful, such as a full Chrome browser, desktop apps, a proper file manager, Linux support, and a full terminal environment. Google is also trying to solve some of the biggest problems Android users have had when moving between their phone and laptop, and make the two devices feel like part of the same ecosystem. ↫ Adamya Sharma at Android Authority I’ve been looking at some of the videos of people using and playing with these new Android laptops, and to be honest, I’m not impressed. I’m seeing quite a bit of jank, a complete lack of consistency, and apparently, a lack of Android applications optimised for desktop use. The close integration with your Android phone are nice, but of course, this also means another dollop of slimy lock-in, as I highly doubt Google will make it easy or even possible at all for, say, iPhones or other platforms to integrate quite as nicely as Android devices will. Worse yet, there’s the elephant in the room: for just how long will Google care about this new platform? These laptops start at $900 and go all the way up to $1300 (and will be considerably more expensive here in Europe), which is a lot to ask for something Google might get bored of and abandon in a few years’ time. Ten or more years ago, in a slightly more innocent time, I might’ve been excited about Google bringing Android to laptops and desktops, but in 2026, I just can’t be bothered to care. Also, and this doesn’t really matter, but “Googlebook OS”?
The slow but steady march to the grave for the Android Open Source Project continues. Every few months Google hammers another big nail in the coffin of Android as an open source effort, and I’ve documented them all here on OSNews (nail, nail, nail, nail, nail), coming to the conclusion long ago that for all intents and purposes, Android is no longer an open source operating system. The latest move, however, is just petty. According to GrapheneOS on , Google has apparently replaced public, instant code downloads for Pixel phone drivers with a manual request form. Instead of publishing code directly to open developer platforms where anyone can grab it, Google now requires developers to fill out a Google Form and wait for someone to send them a Google Drive link. What used to take a couple of hours is now taking weeks. ↫ Hillary Keverenge at Android Authority I’m perhaps misremembering, but I vaguely recall discussions decades ago about what, exactly, it meant to “make source code available”, as open source licenses state in a variety of words. Would mailing a paper print-out by classic post satisfy such requirements? Could you write the source code on a brick and throw it through the user’s window? Could you hire a church choir to sing it? These are all silly examples, but before everyone had internet access, this was a relevant question. The widespread availability of the internet and software like git solved these issues, which makes it all the more petty that Google now requires an actual application process, waiting times, and Google Drive dumps just to get access to the source code for Pixel drivers. Google is clearly trying to kill whatever’s left of the Android Open Source Project’s rotting corpse, only barely technically complying with any license requirements only because they’re obligated to. The Android team at Google must be a hoot at parties.
Whenever the EU steps in to regulate the big technology companies, the response from news outlets and bloggers (often funded or outright owned by right-wing extremists) is to claim it’s just a bunch of dumb , tech-illiterate bureaucrats telling the vastly more intelligent and superior technology companies what to do. Of course, this is just propaganda. Case in point: Something big just happened. As the Open Home Foundation’s Android developer for Home Assistant, I was invited by the European Commission (EC) to consult on Android interoperability. The call for feedback was part of the Commission’s work under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). For anyone unfamiliar, the DMA is an EU law that defines and regulates “gatekeeper platforms” – those that offer “core” services like search engines, app stores, and messaging platforms – to make digital markets fairer and more open to competition. As you might imagine, I had plenty to say about Google’s restrictions on Android, especially the tech giant limiting wake word detection to its own Gemini assistant, a concern I surfaced in our Home Assistant 2026.3 Release Party. To put it plainly, Google had no grounds for limiting Android interoperability in the first place, other than to give itself the upper hand. We knew our community deserved better, and that’s what we told the Commission. The result? The EC listened to us and all the other organizations that contributed. On July 16, 2026, the European Commission adopted a decision under the DMA that requires Alphabet (Google’s parent company) to open up eleven Android features, including always-on wake word detection, ambient sensor access, and screen automation – to all assistants, on equal terms. ↫ Timothy Nibeaudeau What’s really interesting is just how deeply technical and detailed this new EU decision really is. Timothy Nibeaudeau laid out the technical details of how wake word detection on Android works for the European Commission – in short, a DSP runs a really tiny model in a process isolated from the network to detect just a specific wakeword, and only once that wakeword is detected does it hand things off to a larger model running on the actual main SoC – and the EC’s new decision accurately and precisely describes this method and wrote their decision to take every detail into account. When I was invited to share these limitations (and others) with the Commission, I didn’t hold back. Which is why we were thrilled to discover an impressively precise and technically accurate decision from the EU: it correctly describes the two-stage wake word architecture, the DSP, the isolated process, and the role coupling. The report went down to details we only figured out by reading Android’s source code ourselves. ↫ Timothy Nibeaudeau The idea that the European Union and Commission are a bunch of dumb, illiterate bureaucrats imposing impossible, unworkable, unrealistic demands on poor, hardworking, honest technology companies is a bunch of propaganda paid for by these very same companies, and every decision and ruling by the EU around the Digital Markets Act further confirms this by having strong technological underpinnings and being based on the actual workings of the technologies they cover. The EU does a lot of dumb things – as any government body does – but you don’t get to enjoy a nearly two-thirds approval rating for nothing, especially not in the face of the state of the world today. The Digital Markets Act has already proven to be incredibly effective, and this is exactly why the right-wing propaganda against it is reaching an ever crazier fever pitch. When basic consumer protection legislation makes the most powerful companies, right-wing media empires, and even the most powerful country in the world throw tamper tantrums like toddlers, you know you’re doing something right.
Given that Android phones have been around for nearly two decades now, there comes a time when Google has to end support for one of its older software versions. For a couple of years now, Google Play services has been supported on devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or newer. That has changed over the past few weeks, with Google deciding to retire this software version after a nearly 11-year run. ↫ Chethan Rao at Android Authority At some point, an operating system version needs to be left behind – and I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable to no longer support Google Play Services on an operating system version that’s 11 years old. However, this is Android we’re talking about, and devices running Android 6.0 were probably sold much more recently than 11 years ago, when the operating system version was new. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if devices running Android 6.0 are still being sold today. I doubt this is something that will affect many people who read OSNews, but there’s bound to be edge cases – Android 6.0 devices silently doing their job that are now just a little less useful. I’m thinking of really cheap tablets that can still play video just fine, retro gaming handhelds that don’t magically lose the ability to emulate SNES games, that sort of stuff. The numbers will be small, but if you happen to be among them, this can be a really annoying deprecation.
Drivers of cars from the Volkswagen Group using alternative Android versions like GrapheneOS, LineageOS, or /e/OS have been unable to use the VW app for some time. This means they can neither check their vehicle’s remaining range from their phone, schedule service appointments, nor control charging and air conditioning. The car manufacturer has made changes to the app’s backend that only allow devices with Google’s pre-installed Play Services. When asked by heise online, VW stated that affected users should not expect a timely reopening. “However, they are looking into it.” ↫ Andreas Floemer at Heise.de Clearly, this should be illegal. Then again, that has never stopped Volkswagen before.
Rumours had been circulating for a while, but now it’s official: OnePlus is effectively retreating from the European and US markets. Today, our hearts are undoubtedly heavy and mixed with emotion. As part of the proactive global strategy adjustment, OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America. ↫ OnePlus statement Once OnePlus’ co-founder Carl Pei left the company (and founded Nothing), things have been feeling shaky for OnePlus, once the undisputed darling of the more technical part of the Android crowd. Their phones got more expensive, their minimalist, close-to-stock Android version got progressively worse, and they started lagging in updates, too. My OnePlus Watch 3, for instance, which was promised to get WearOS 6 at some point, but never got it – meanwhile, WearOS 7 has already been released. No, this news is not particularly surprising. Luckily, the company claims it will honour its warranty and update support obligations for existing products in Europe and the US, which is nice, but also something they’re legally obligated to do (at least in the EU). A snag here is that the only update path the company offers is to ColorOS, from its parent company Oppo, which many more traditional Android and OnePlus users certainly won’t be happy about. Something is better than nothing, I suppose, and I’ll reserve judgment until I see what ColorOS 17 will be like on my other OnePlus product, a OnePlus Pad 3. It’s just one more victim of western markets (illegally) consolidating on Apple and Samsung (while a few Pixels rummaging in the margins).
Wherever in the world you go, the smartphone landscape is dominated by Android and iOS, and while this has always been problematic, recent events have made the dependency on two American tech giants for what is probably our most personal computing device even more problematic than it already was. We use our smartphones to keep our secrets, do our banking, interact with our governments, share our deepest thoughts with our friends and family, and a whole lot more. Having this invaluable tool the vast majority of us depend on tied entirely to Google and Apple is not just bad for the market, it’s also a downright threat to the national security of anyone not living in the US. Here in Europe, there’s been an awakening lately, with governments, companies, and people alike finally realising that having our entire digital infrastructure controlled by foreign, adversarial interests is a terrible idea. Sadly, breaking free from our Android and iOS chains is not so easy. The most ideal solution would be a truly open source alternative smartphone operating system, but that’s a hard sell for 99.9% of smartphone users who need the applications required to do their finances, talk to their friends, or interact with their governments. The cold and harsh truth is that with very few exceptions, these applications simply do not (yet) exist for smartphone operating systems that aren’t Android or iOS. The only viable alternative at this point in time is to take whatever’s left of the Android Open Source Project, remove anything that ties it to Google and its services, fill in the gaps with alternative services and applications, and sell it as a Google-free or de-Googled Android platform. There’s several projects in this space, and with Europe drunkenly stumbling out of the technological hole it dug itself into, it’s no surprise that two of the more popular alternatives to Apple or Google-controlled smartphones come from Europe (and from the same country, no less). Today, we’re taking a look at one of these: iodéOS. Iodé is a company based in Toulouse, France, which focuses on offering a Google-free Android called iodéOS, either preinstalled on phones you can buy, or as a ROM you can install yourself on supported devices. As a company, iodé makes its money through selling devices with iodéOS preinstalled, through an optional premium subscription (that I didn’t take a look at), and through donations, and all of their code is published as open source on their Gitlab instance hosted in France. Iodé loaned me a Fairphone 6 with iodéOS preinstalled, one of he many smartphones and tablets they sell through their online store for review. This isn’t going to be an Android review; you already know what Android is like, and there’s no need for me to rehash any of that. Instead, I want to focus on the things that make using de-Googled Android different from using Google Android. Don’t be afraid of microG There are various ways to go about making a de-Googled Android variant, and iodéOS chose the LineageOS route, with microG installed on top. For those unaware, microG is a project which aims to replace the various proprietary parts of Google Play Services, required by many Android applications, with open source reimplementations. While it doesn’t offer 100% compatibility, it works exceptionally well, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find applications just don’t work at all with microG. IodéOS updates its microG installation through a dedicated F-Droid repository that’s obviously enabled by default, so you don’t have to do anything yourself. Using microG instead of Google Play Services doesn’t mean you have to rely solely on whatever’s available in F-Droid, since there are a variety of alternative Play Store frontends available. IodéOS ships with the Aurora Store, which is an open-source frontend to the Play Store that can be used with or without a Google account. If you use it with your Google account, you’ll gain access to whatever applications you already own, including paid ones, but you won’t be able to buy applications inside Aurora. You can, however, buy an application on the Play Store website, after which it will show up in Aurora as well, assuming you’re logged in with the same account. Aurora also comes with something something called FakeStore, which is sadly an important part of the puzzle; it’s a stub application that has the same package name as the real Play Store. Some applications check whether the Play Store is available before working properly, so this is sadly needed to ensure maximum compatibility. The only issue I sometimes ran into with Aurora is that it would load up its listings, but then any application I tapped on said it was unavailable. When this happened, reloading the Aurora application always fixed the issue. Annoying, but not gamebreaking. A few things did not work for me when using microG on iodéOS, and they’re exactly the things you’d expect not to work. If you have a WearOS device, you’re out of luck; WearOS devices simply do not work when using microG, but there is a bounty to add support for it. If you want to use a smartwatch with iodéOS, there are various options available, such as Garmin devices, which is what I used during my testing and it worked flawlessly. Another feature from “regular” Android that simply won’t work is RCS. There’s only one RCS client available on Android, Google Messages, and as you can imagine, Google is in no rush to allow devices without Google Play Services to register for and use RCS messaging. Tying to register with Google Messages will fail, and there are no other RCS clients available (save for a few China and India-specific clients). There’s a microG bounty for this, too, but no luck so far. Of course, there are countless messaging platforms that work just fine on iodéOS – regular SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Signal, and so on – and especially if you’re European, it’s unlikely RCS support matters to you at all. I just don’t
LineageOS, the de-Googled Android ROM that serves as the backbone for pretty much the entire custom Android ROM community, has published an article about what the Android developer verification changes mean for them. I really like the factual tone of their article, especially this part: Critics such as F-Droid, EFF, and “Keep Android Open” point out that this also happens to route every install path through Google-controlled infrastructure, hands Google a kill switch over any app or developer worldwide, and arrives shortly after Google’s antitrust lawsuits. Both things can be true at once: real fraud is a problem and the restriction of developers is a convenient side effect of solving it this way – and we’re not in a position to pretend we know Google’s internal reasoning. We’re just telling you what they’ve said and what it changes; you can weigh the “why” yourself. ↫ Nolen Johnson on the LineageOS website For LineageOS, these new verification measures don’t really mean much, as they don’t affect the project’s work or software. The developer verification infrastructure is a separate application that is part of Google Mobile Services, and LineageOS does not ship GMS nor does it ever intend to. As such, they don’t have to do anything, as this won’t be an issue unless LineageOS users choose to install a GApps package that happens to include the developer verification infrastructure. If Google were to move the developer verification infrastructure into Play Services in the future, LineageOS makes it clear they’ll disable it globally, as they have done with a number of other “annoying Play Services-provided over-the-air update implementations“. There really isn’t much more they can do; the rest is up to users and projects that use LineageOS as their base.
The clock is ticking for Android as a (somewhat) open platform. If you are running Android 8 or higher, a virus has been installed on your device and is silently awaiting remote activation. Over the past few months, devices around the world have been infected with this novel strain, with as many as 4 billion Android handsets and tablets estimated to have already been contaminated, meaning that around half of all humanity may be at risk from this threat. Disguising itself as the innocuously-titled “Android Developer Verifier” (ADV) process, this trojan horse runs surreptitiously in the background as a system service with full root privileges, quietly awaiting an activation signal. The service cannot be blocked, disabled, or removed. Unlike a commonplace bit of malware, this extraordinary strain won’t be detected and neutralized by Play Protect (the malware scanning and remediation service that is installed on all Android Certified devices). In fact, Play Protect is itself the vector through which this virus is transmitted and installed. That is because it is Google themselves who is propagating ADV. And once activated, this malevolent process has exactly one goal: to block you from running software by developers who haven’t been approved centrally by Google. ↫ The F-Droid news website If nobody steps up, if no regulator takes on Google in this matter, we could very well be looking at the end of F-Droid and similar open source application repositories on Android. I use F-Droid, and in fact, one of the most important and most-used application on my Pixel 10 Pro comes from F-Droid: Fennec. This Firefox fork is not available through any Google-sanctioned means, and I could just wake up one day and have the browser on what is supposed to be my phone stop working. Age verification, tying crucial services to iOS and Google Android, killing the ability to install your own software on your phone, purposefully making people hopelessly addicted to and dependent on “AI”, and so much more – we’re facing a multi-pronged attack designed to beat us into submission and give up on the idea of Free computing. I have to admit I’ve lost all hope we’ll be able to win this battle, as the combined interests of technology megacorporations and our own governments are just too powerful to fight. I feel like we’re living in the computing end times.
Yesterday, Google released Android 17 to Pixel devices, so late last night I updated my Pixel 10 Pro with the intent to write a news item about the release today. The reality is that that I totally forgot I even upgraded last night, because Android 17 is about the biggest nothingburger I’ve ever seen. Virtually all of the new features listed in the upgrade blurb on my phone were “AI” nonsense I don’t encounter, so over the course of the day, I didn’t really notice anything new about my phone’s operating system. The only interesting feature that I think will be particularly useful on tablets and perhaps foldable devices is something called “App Bubbles”. Basically, you can turn any application into an overlay that can be minimised into a bubble, which then lives anywhere on your screen. Tap it, and you can maximise the overlay again. This little multitasking bubble can contain multiple applications, effectively making it a dock or taskbar. Neat, but I didn’t see much use for it on my phone. The remainder of the new non-“AI” features are hard to spot, at best. I guess the ability to turn one half of a foldable display into a gamepad is neat if you can deal with gaming on glass buttons (I cannot), and the changes to location access (you can now grant it for just one time) and contacts access (it’s more fine-grained and temporary now instead of granting access to everything forever) are welcome, but that’s about it for user-facing features. Under the hood, the one thing that stands out is that Google is enforcing stricter memory limits for applications, based on how much RAM a device has. The idea is that this should prevent memory leaks from getting out of control and leading to crashes, which is nice, especially for devices with less RAM. Android 17 is available for Pixel devices now, and will probably find its way to non-Pixel devices over the coming months or years. With how little meat there is on Android 17’s bones, this might be the first release where Android’s update woes don’t really matter.
The news that Google is working to move Chrome OS to the Android technology stack, and that it wants to start putting Android on laptops, is not exactly news, as the company has been talking about it for years. At an Android event today, the company finally unveiled the culmination of all this work: Googlebooks. We’re bringing together the best of Android, which comes with powerful apps on Google Play and a modern OS that’s designed for Intelligence, and ChromeOS, which comes with the world’s most popular browser. The result is Googlebook: a new category of laptops built with Gemini’s helpfulness at its core, designed to work seamlessly with the devices in your life and powered by premium hardware. We’re sharing a sneak peek into the Googlebook experience today and will have a lot more to share later this year. ↫ Alex Kuscher at The Keyword, a Google blog apparently The approach here seems very similar to Chromebooks, with Googlebooks being designed and built by various OEMs, but instead of Chrome OS they run Android in desktop mode. Of course, “AI” has been creamed all over these things, to the point where not even the venerable mouse cursor is safe: if you wiggle your cursor, it will turn into “Magic Pointer”, which will highlight various “AI” actions as you hover over stuff on your screen. Google also showed off an “AI”-based feature to create widgets, as well as the ability to access files on your phone right from a Googlebook. That’s about all we know as far as functionality and features goes. They’re supposed to go on sale later this year, with models coming from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo.
The ways in which Google can lock you into their ecosystem are often obvious, but sometimes, they’re incredibly sneaky and easily missed. CAPTCHA tests are annoying, but at the same time, they can help protect websites from bots. While these tests are already the bane of our internet existence, they are going to get worse for some Android users. A requirement for Google’s next-generation reCAPTCHA system will make it a lot harder for de-Googled phones to browse the web. A Reddit user has highlighted a seemingly innocuous support page for Google’s reCAPTCHA system. The page in question relates to troubleshooting reCAPTCHA verification on mobile. In the document, it says that you’ll need to use a compatible mobile device to complete verification. If you have an Android phone, then that means you’ll need to be running Google Play Services version 25.41.30 or higher. ↫ Ryan McNeal at Android Authority When was the last time you actively thought about reCAPTCHA being a Google property? Even then, when was the last time you imagined something as annoying but ultimately basic as a captcha prompt could be used to tie people to Google Play Services, and thus to “blessed” Android? Every time we manage to work around one of these asinine ties to Google Play Services, another one pops up to ruin our day. We’re so stupidly tied down to and entirely dependent on two very mid – at best – mobile operating systems, and it’s such a stupid own goal for especially everyone outside of the US to just sit there and do nothing about it. Worse yet, it seems we’re only tying ourselves down further, while paying for the privilege. At the very least we should be categorising certain services – government ID services, payment services, popular messaging platforms, and a few more – as vital infrastructure, and legally mandate these services have clearly defined and well-documented APIs so anyone is free to make alternative clients. The fact that many people are tied to either iOS or “blessed” Android because of something as stupid as what bank they use or the level of incompetency of their government ID service should be a major crisis in any country that isn’t the US. I don’t want to use iOS or Android, but nobody is leaving me any choice. It’s infuriating.
When Google said they were going to require verification from every single Android developer that would end the ability to install applications from outside of the Play Store (commonly wrongfully referred to as “sideloading”), it caused quite a backlash. The company then backtracked a little bit, and said they would come up with an “advanced flow” to make sure installing applications from outside of the Play Store remained possible. Well, Google has detailed this “advanced flow”, and as everyone expected, it’s such a massive list of onerous hoops to jump through they might as well just lock Android down to the Play Store and get it over with. First, if a developer is verified, you can download their applications to your device and install them the same way you can do now. Second, developers with “limited distribution accounts”, such as students or hobby projects, can share their applications with up to 20 devices without verification. Third, and this is where the fun starts, we have unverified developers – basically what all Android developers sharing applications outside of the Play Store are now. Here’s the full “advanced flow” as described by Google to allow you to install an application from an unverified developer: Setting aside the fact that developer verification is, in and of itself, a massive problem, I’m kind of okay with a few scary warnings, a disclaimer, and perhaps a single reboot to enable installing applications outside of the Play Store – a few things to make normal people shrug their shoulders and not bother. However, adding enabling developer mode and a goddamn 24-hour waiting period is batshit insanity, and clearly has the intention of discouraging everyone, effectively locking Android to the Play Store. Android is already basically an entirely locked-down, closed-source platform, and once this “advanced flow” comes into force, there’s virtually no difference between iOS and Android, especially for us Europeans who get similarly onerous anti-user nonsense when trying to install alternative application stores on iOS. I see no reason to buy Android over iOS at this point – might as well get the faster phone with better update support.
Android devices are not immune to issues like every other technology. They may shut down suddenly, stop responding, get stuck in a continuous reboot loop, or apps may simply not function properly. Most people, when faced with such situations, think that a factory reset is the only way and go for it immediately. However, this may not be the correct (or safe) way at all. Knowing how a factory reset is different from a system repair for Android will not only enable you to pick the right approach but also get rid of the issue quicker and save your data that can be lost due to the troubleshooting of your Android phone. What is a Factory Reset? A factory reset completely removes all user files and changes in an Android device, thereby resulting in the device being like a fresh, brand new one. In fact, a factory reset is the first major step that people generally think of taking when their phone starts acting up. Examples of common situations when a factory reset may be useful: Main features: Factory Reset Steps Step 1: Back up your data Before proceeding, ensure all important data is safely backed up using Google Backup, external storage, or a trusted backup tool such as Dr.Fone. Step 2: Access factory reset settings Navigate to Settings > General Management > Reset > Factory data reset. Step 3: Confirm and complete the reset Review the information displayed, confirm the reset, and allow the device to erase data and restart with default factory settings. What is System Repair for Android? System repair is a focused fix for issues with the Android operating system itself without resorting to a complete factory reset. It doesn’t rule out user data but rather fixes damaged system files, unsuccessful updates, and OS-level problems that cause the device to behave unusually. Dr.Fone System Repair (Android) is one of the most common tools in this category. It is a desktop software program that basically acts as a lifesaver for the toughest Android system troubles such as boot loops, black screens, stuck logo, bricked devices, and frequent crashes. The process is guided, automatic, and does not need a high level of technical skill; basically, anyone without a technical background can deal with it smoothly. Curious to see how easily your Android issues can be fixed? Visit the Android Repair website to learn more and explore step-by-step solutions. Typical problems system repair can fix: Main features: System Repair with Dr.Fone (Android) – Step-by-step guide: Step 1. Launch Dr.Fone and connect your Samsung device Open Wondershare Dr.Fone, go to Toolbox, connect your Samsung device, select System Repair, choose Android, click Android Repair, then Repair Now. Step 2. Select the brand and confirm details Choose Samsung as the brand, confirm Name, Model, Country, and Carrier, check “I agree with the warning and I am ready to proceed”, and click Next. Step 3. Enter Download Mode For devices with a Home button, power off and hold Volume Down + Home + Power, then press Volume Up. Step 4. Download and install firmware Dr.Fone will detect firmware automatically. Click Fix Now, type “000000” to confirm, and let the installation complete. Step 5. Complete the repair After rebooting, click Done if the device starts normally, or Try Again if it doesn’t. Factory reset vs system repair: when to use which solution Scenario A Soft issues (minor errors) Recommended approach: Always start with the easiest fixes: reboot your device, install the updates for your apps, and delete the cache. Scenario B System firmware corruption Recommended approach: System repair programs such as Dr.Fone should be your top option because they fix the Android operating system directly. Furthermore, they can fix complex system errors even in the case when a factory reset fails or cannot be done. Scenario C Severe but simple user errors Recommended approach: Here, a factory reset is the more sensible choice since it deletes user data and configuration clutter and works well when the source of the problems is the settings or the apps rather than the firmware corruption. Scenario D All other methods have failed Recommended approach: A factory reset should be the last option after you have tried every other stuff. And before doing a factory reset, you must back up your data so that you don’t lose it permanently. Conclusion Understanding the right situation for a factory reset and a system repair can be a great time saver, protect your data, and spare you from frustration. For minor issues or when you want to keep your files, system repair is generally the right way, fixing the OS without deleting your data. A factory reset is best when the device’s performance is noticeably impacted by a messed-up setting or a deeply ingrained user-level error. In cases of firmware corruption or boot loops, system repair tools like Dr.Fone can be a very good, reliable, and efficient solution. Knowing the distinction allows you to select the right method for your Android device, keep it running smoothly, and at the same time minimize data loss.
About half a year ago, I wrote an article about persistent rumours I’d heard from Android ROM projects that Google was intending to discontinue the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). AOSP has been gutted by Google over the years, with the company moving more and more parts of the operating system into closed-source, non-AOSP components, like Google Play Services. While you can technically still run bare AOSP if you’re really hardcore, it’s simply unusable for 99% of smartphone users out there. Google quickly responded to these widespread rumours, stating that “AOSP is not going away”, and a lot of people, clearly having learned nothing from human history, took this at face value and believed Google word-for-word. Since corporations can’t be trusted and lying is their favourite activity, I drew a different conclusion at the time: This seems like a solid denial from Google, but it leaves a lot of room for Google to make a wide variety of changes to Android’s development and open source status without actually killing off AOSP entirely. Since Android is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license, Google is free to make “Pixel Android” – its own Android variant – closed source, leaving AOSP up until that point available under the Apache 2.0 license. This is reminiscent of what Oracle did with Solaris. Of course, any modifications to the Linux kernel upon which Android is built will remain open source, since the Linux kernel is licensed under the GPLv2. If Google were indeed intending to do this, what could happen is that Google takes Android closed source from here on out, spinning off whatever remains of AOSP up until that point into a separate company or project, as potentially ordered during the antitrust case against Google in the United States. This would leave Google free to continue developing its own “Pixel Android” entirely as proprietary software – save for the Linux kernel – while leaving AOSP in the state it’s in right now outside of Google. This technically means “AOSP is not going away”, as Chau claims. ↫ Thom Holwerda at OSNews Ever since the claim that “AOSP is not going away”, Google has taken numerous steps to further tighten the grip it has on Android, much to the detriment of both the Android Open Source Project and the various ROM makers that depend on it. Device-specific source code for Pixel devices is no longer being released, Google dabbled with developer certification even for developers outside of Google Play, and Google significantly scaled back the release of security patches to AOSP. And now it’s early 2026, and Google is about to take the next step in the slow killing of the Android Open Source Project. On the main page of the Android Open Source Project, there’s now a new message: Effective in 2026, to align with our trunk stable development model and ensure platform stability for the ecosystem, we will publish source code to AOSP in Q2 and Q4. For building and contributing to AOSP, we recommend utilizing android-latest-release instead of aosp-main. The android-latest-release manifest branch will always reference the most recent release pushed to AOSP. This means that instead of four AOSP code releases every year, Google is now scaling back to just two every year. The gutting and eventual killing of AOSP has now reached the point where the open source nature of AOSP is effectively meaningless, and we’re yet a few more big steps closer to what I outlined above: eventually, Google will distance itself from AOSP entirely, focusing all of its efforts on Pixel Android alone – without any code contributions to AOSP at all. If you still think “AOSP is not going away”, you’re delusional. OASP is already on life support, and with this latest move Google is firmly gripping the plug.
Google has made it very clear that it’s intending to bring Android to laptops and desktops, and replace Chrome OS with Android in the process. We now have a codename, and some more information about what this will look like in practice. Over the weekend, a tipster on Telegram named Frost Core shared a link to an intriguing Google job listing for a ‘Senior Product Manager, Android, Laptop and Tablets.’ While we already know Google is bringing Android to the PC, the listing explicitly states that the role involves ‘working on a new Aluminium, Android-based, operating system.’ This effectively confirms that Aluminium is the codename for the new unified platform. The name appears to be a nod to the project’s roots: like Chromium (the open-source version of ChromeOS), Aluminium is a metal ending in ‘-ium.’ The choice of the British spelling — emphasizing the ‘Al’ prefix — likely pays homage to Android serving as the project’s foundation.” ↫ Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority So we have the codename, and of course, what we also have is a strong focus on “AI”, which will be “at the core” of desktop Android. Further details uncovered in job openings include a focus not just on entry-level hardware, but also midrange and premium laptops and desktops, as well as Chrome OS being replaced by this new desktop Android variant. I somehow doubt existing Chrome OS devices will be updated to this new desktop Android variant, so Chrome OS will continue to exist as a product for at least quite a few years to come. I still have a considerable amount of doubt that Google would be able to pull this off in a successful way. It’s already hard enough to get anyone to buy any laptop that isn’t running Windows or macOS, and I doubt the Android operating system has the kind of pull with consumers to make them consider switching to it on their laptops or desktops. Enthusiasts will surely eat it up – if only to try – but without any clear, massive success, this desktop Android thing runs the real risk of ending up at Google’s graveyard. These Android laptops can be incredible products, but even if they are, I just won’t trust Google to remain interested in it.
Google has been using Rust in Android more and more for its memory safety characteristics, and the results on that front were quite positive. It turns out, however, that not only does using Rust reduce the number memory safety issues, it’s also apparently a lot faster to code in Rust than C or C++. We adopted Rust for its security and are seeing a 1000x reduction in memory safety vulnerability density compared to Android’s C and C++ code. But the biggest surprise was Rust’s impact on software delivery. With Rust changes having a 4x lower rollback rate and spending 25% less time in code review, the safer path is now also the faster one. ↫ Jeff Vander Stoep at the Google Security Blog When you think about it, it actually makes sense. If you have fewer errors of a certain type, you’ll spend less time fixing those issues, time which you can then spend developing new code. Of course, it’s not that simple and there’s a ton more factors to consider, but on a base level, it definitely makes sense. Spellcheck in word processors means you have to spend less time detecting and fixing spelling errors, so you have more time to spend on actually writing. I’m sure we’ll all be very civil about this, and nobody will be weird about Rust at all.
Only a few months ago, Google announced it was going to require that all Android applications – even those installed outside of the Play Store – had to be verified. This led to a massive backlash, and it seems our protests and complaints have had effect: the company announced a change in plans today, and will, in fact, not require certification for installing applications outside of the Play Store. Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified. We are designing this flow specifically to resist coercion, ensuring that users aren’t tricked into bypassing these safety checks while under pressure from a scammer. It will also include clear warnings to ensure users fully understand the risks involved, but ultimately, it puts the choice in their hands. We are gathering early feedback on the design of this feature now and will share more details in the coming months. ↫ Matthew Forsythe Director at the Android Developers Blog While this is great news, I’m still concerned this is only temporary. Companies like Google have a tendency to announce some draconian measure to test the waters, walk it back in response to backlash, only to then reintroduce it through some sneaky backdoor a year later when nobody’s looking. Installing whatever we want on the devices we own should be a protected right, not something graciously afforded to us by our corporate overlords. If you think this is the end of this story, you’re a fool.
The LineageOS project has released version 23 of their AOSP-based Android variant. LineageOS 23 is based on the initial release of Android 16 – so not the QPR1 release that came later – because Google has not made the source code for that release available yet. Like other, similar projects, LineageOS also suffers from Google’s recent further lockdown of Android; not only do they not have access to Android 16 QPR1’s source code, they also can’t follow along with the latest security patches for Android due to changes Google made to the patch release process, and without the device trees for Pixel devices, Pixels are now no longer supported any better than other Android devices. LineageOS 23 brings many of the same features Android 16 brought, and comes with updated versions of LineageOS’ own camera application and music player, as well as a new TV launcher. They’ve also worked hard to make it much easier to run LineageOS in QEMU, they’ve improved support for running mainline kernels, they’ve made it easier to merge security fixes and updates for various kernel versions, and much more. Update instructions can be found on the devices page, and specifically note that if you’re using an unofficial LineageOS build, you’ll need to perform the original installation again. With LineageOS being the Debian of the Android world, you can expect a ton of these unofficial versions to pop up over the coming months for devices LineageOS does not officially support.
