That’s why I’m still using a custom Android ROM in 2024.

Custom ROMs I used to be That This is a thing for Android enthusiasts, but discussions around them have died down in recent years. Improved software updates, better user interfaces, and powerful hardware have made them less necessary. However, the community never completely disappeared, and in 2024 you can still find dozens of Android phones and tablets running official LineageOS builds. So what keeps so many people on modified operating systems while most others have already moved on? To find out, I installed custom ROMs on two of my Android devices.

Why install a custom ROM in 2024?

The biggest reason to install a custom ROM has not changed in the last ten years – a secondary OS can extend the life of older Android devices that were long abandoned by their respective manufacturers. Take the LG V40 or OnePlus 7 Pro for example. Officially, both phones no longer receive new Android version updates and security patches. However, the enthusiast community supports such devices with official LineageOS builds up to Android 14. Some popular phones like the Galaxy S5 are still receiving updates.

Performance and responsiveness are perhaps the second most important reason to consider installing a custom ROM. Even former flagship chips may not be able to withstand the load of modern Android skins and applications. Finally, even if you have a relatively new device such as Pixel 9you may want to consider an alternative OS without Google services to preserve your privacy or improve battery life.

But this is just a theory – how useful is a custom ROM in the real world?

My test subjects were the Poco X3, which I use as a secondary phone, and the Xiaomi Pad 6, which I use for web browsing and media viewing.

Poco X3 was a popular budget smartphone when it was launched four years ago at the end of 2020. It received its last security update in September 2023 and never moved beyond Android 12. However, with a little searching, you can find several custom ROMs based on Android 14 that are still receiving updates every week (pictured above).

My Xiaomi Pad 6, on the other hand, regularly receives official security updates, but may never see Android 15. And although the tablet uses the Snapdragon 870, a flagship chip from several generations ago, I noticed stutters when multitasking on the computer. Stock ROM. Xiaomi custom skin also doesn’t support multiple user profiles, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and installed CrDroidCustom ROM focused on customization.

In both cases the overall experience was day and night. My phone and tablet began to work noticeably faster and smoother, applications opened and closed almost instantly. In fact, I could barely notice a difference between my Pixel 8 and the Xiaomi Pad 6 in multitasking, despite the latter having a much older chip. Opening the app drawer, it turns out that both custom ROMs come with less than ten apps pre-installed, which is a far cry from the dozens on the stock install.

While LineageOS has earned its reputation as a stock Android app, I would say it’s closer to the stock versions. Google didn’t give AOSP nearly as much attention as Pixel UI, so the LineageOS developers took the liberty of adding a modern web browser, gallery, camera, and calendar apps.

Additionally, you will find many quality of life features that are still not included in most stock ROMs. For example, I wish my Pixel 8 would allow me to double-tap the status bar to quickly turn off the display, block any app from accessing the Internet, press and hold the volume key to switch music tracks, and add an always-on network traffic monitor. to the status bar.

However, LineageOS is just the tip of the iceberg, as CrDroid has dozens and dozens of features ranging from custom volume boost to customizing status bar icons. I’ll let the screenshots of the CrDroid settings menu below paint a more complete picture. And while this may sound like a broken record, the overall experience was so smooth that I no longer felt the urge to run out and buy a new tablet.

I also discovered many Magisk modules that offer even more functionality. Magisk modules are small apps for rooted Android devices that add system-level functionality. For example, I installed Pixelization module and immediately gained access to the voice dialing assistant in Gboard and Google’s Now Playing feature on my Poco X3. With some effort, you can use this module to get the most out of it. Exclusive features for pixels Works on any device, including filtering calls in unsupported countries.

Overall, custom ROMs still promise to update your phone with some extra features if you’re willing to tinker. So what’s the catch?

If you’ve ever been carried away rooting your android phoneYou may know that Google has started opposing custom ROMs under the guise of security. The biggest obstacle is Play Integrity, Google’s service that allows apps to verify that they run on a “real Android device” without “fake app versions and untrusted environments.”

Simply put, the Play Integrity API will raise a red flag if your Android device has an unlocked bootloader or root access. Unfortunately, this also disqualifies every operating system that is not Google GMS certified. This is frustrating because a custom ROM is not inherently unsafe, but Google treats it as such. As you’d expect, many banking apps require Play Integrity, but some other apps, such as McDonald’s, also inexplicably refuse to run on uncertified ROMs.

You can now technically bypass Play Integrity by rooting and installing a veritable cocktail of Magisk modules that spoof device IDs. I tried this approach and the popular Play Integrity Fix module really helped me. Apps could no longer detect that I was using a custom ROM, let alone that I had root access. Google Wallet worked too, allowing me to use the phone’s NFC for contactless payments.

However, my luck changed in a matter of days. When I sat down to write this article, I noticed that my device no longer passes Play’s integrity check. Confused, I opened the Magisk subreddit and found a thread claiming that Google had banned most of the fingerprints used by the Play Integrity Fix module to avoid root detection. It turns out that the module currently relies on a small number of leaked fingerprints, most of which are taken from official beta versions of the Pixel ROM. Google can revoke these fingerprints at any time, meaning the community will have to search for unbanned fingerprints.

As you can probably tell, this is a game of cat and mouse and an unreliable solution at best if you rely on your phone for banking, RCS, contactless payments or a host of other things that require “fairness” checks. However, not all custom ROMs suffer from this problem − GrapheneOS passes a basic integrity check, and this is sufficient for the vast majority of applications, even banking ones. I wrote about myself first hand experience installing and using GrapheneOS on the Pixel 6 last year, and it’s only gotten better in recent months. Since it satisfies the basic security requirements of the Play Integrity API, most banking applications work fine.

The good news is that, other than apps blindly relying on Play Integrity, I can’t say I encountered any usability issues on the ROMs I tested. I didn’t notice any crashes or random reboots, all my alarms went off on time, and battery life remained stable. Custom ROMs were once considered the wild west of Android, but they have matured significantly over the years.

Leaving aside GrapheneOS, which is only supported on new Pixel devices anyway, would I recommend installing a custom ROM in 2024? The answer will depend on your confidence in Play Integrity-related applications and your tolerance for sudden breaking changes.

For my part, I can’t justify using a stock custom ROM like LineageOS on my everyday smartphone with drivers. While my overall experience has been better than most stock ROMs I’ve used lately, the Play Integrity workarounds are simply too unreliable. I’d hate to wake up to an app that refuses to work on my fully functional phone. However, if you fall into the small group of users who have a supported device, the technical know-how, and the patience to work around potential issues, I can still recommend installing a custom ROM on your primary phone in 2024.

That being said, I think custom ROMs are worth your consideration if you have a secondary Android device like a tablet. Heavier skins like Samsung’s One UI and Amazon’s Fire OS can be seriously slow, especially on older devices. However, both manufacturers have made it difficult to install custom ROMs on their latest devices. The Xiaomi Pad series and Google Pixel Tablet are the only current generation devices. Android tablets with strong community software support.

Needless to say, I will continue to use custom firmware on my tablet. Responsiveness and the ability to switch between multiple users matter much more than compatibility with a small number of applications, especially on a shared device.

Moreover, if you are only interested in the security and privacy aspects of alternative operating systems, I can confidently recommend taking a closer look at GrapheneOS.

Instead of bypassing security features like Secure Boot, GrapheneOS aims to build on them and build on them with additional features. For example, you can effectively isolate and isolate Play services to ensure that Google can’t collect data from your phone in bulk.

As for other custom ROMs, their future is uncertain. It’s a little ironic that a company that once prided itself on Android’s diversity is now actively discouraging the very communities that celebrate it most. But without a competitor on the horizon, it’s just the status quo we have to live with. The only positive side is that advances in hardware have equalized cheap android phones is quite usable these days whether you have installed a custom ROM or not.