Do you run a Custom ROM?
Do you run a Custom ROM?
Simple question really! Are any of you running a Custom ROM? Furthermore, are any of you running a De-Googled ROM?
Why do you run your custom ROM, and what are the drawbacks?
Yes, I'd rather fuck around with custom ROMs than endure the user-hostile crapware that most vendors bundle. I'd also rather try to make an app work despite safety net or whatever not passing out of the box than not have any defenses against the dumb bullshit software vendors put in their apps. I'd rather go back to a feature phone than live with a walled garden full of spyware and ads.
Been running CalyxOS for 3 years. Compile it myself from source with some extra tweaks and such. I've even got a nice build server going that automatically compiles builds monthly and pushes updates to my phone via OTAs. It was a little work to get set up, but now it doesn't feel any different from the stock Android experience.
It started because I was tired of all the unchecked spying Google does, and I wanted to get away from that. But now I can never go back to "regular" Android, because the vendor bloat in "stock" ROMs is incessant, and I am maintaining patches for quite a few features Google has either removed, or never supported in the first place (2-button navigation, AM/PM clock, automatic call recording).
Honestly, there hasn't been any drawbacks. The phone works perfectly, calls are fine, it runs great, and I haven't needed Google Play Services for basically anything. My banking app still works. I don't use Google Pay so I don't really care that it doesn't work. Android wearOS doesn't work, but at this point Google has dropped the ball so severely, I don't have the motivation to bother with a smartwatch.
Most of my paid apps continue to work without patches, and I get them from Aurora Store. For the ones that don't work, I just patch them myself to remove the license checks. I paid for them, so I should be able to use them regardless of what ROM I use.
I run GrapheneOS without any Google Play Services. I don't want to be locked into any software and I selfhost all my backups except having encrypted backups in one cloud provider for very important things to keep them off-site.
Most of the things people generally would consider drawbacks like lack of google assistant, chrome, play store, youtube etc. I consider to be a positive thing. I am in mostly full control of permissions and I have a siloed work user when I do need to access Slack and other apps for company use.
Sadly not anymore because I need my banking apps to work reliably. Making them work isn't the biggest problem, but I'll never know when an update blindsides me and breaks something.
On a sidenote, I'd really like to know why banks think that an ancient phone that hasn't seen a security update in years is somehow more secure than an up-to-date Lineage or GrapheneOS.
I have a lineage phone I keep on dial and I was using graphene OS for a minute but
The thing is that I live by my phone. Passwords, banking, pretty much the entirety of my actual life daily. I think graphene OS is great! But I also don't have time or a the ability to have an AI review the codebase to validate that what I'm putting on my phone is safe. The truth is that these are unpaid strangers making a great product who's work Im not a subject matter expert in. Android is a large codebase. I'm friends with a guy who works on it full time and even he feels lost sometimes. So I reversed my phone back to stock Android for my daily driver.
If I'm doing better financially in a few months I'll likely buy another pixel phone or try fair phone with graphene. I just can't justify the purchase right now and my phone works fine.
Just a reminder if you like these projects, donate to them!. I dropped about $1000 on open source stuff over the last year to include joplin, EFF, vueJS, graphene, lineage, and quasarJS. Every one of them does great work.
not anymore....
i used to screw around with custom ROMs all the time. mostly AOKP and cyanogenmod... but then phones started getting picky about rooting... things like camera stopped working or not working to full capabilities...
also i was installIing "[NEWEST SHINY] KERNEL 4.1.1 (L33T SCHEDULER, FASTEST PERFORMANCE!!!111)" like every week, but that got really tiring.
edit: i just noticed AOKP is dead... so sad. anyone know what happened?
I'm running lineage OS on my moto one 5g ace. Main reason was to upgrade it to the most recent version of android, since it wasn't getting any updates beyond 11. No drawbacks here, haven't run into any bugs or anything. But I'm also not a power user or anything, just trying to extend the life of my phone
I'm using Evolution X because MIUI just sucks and my phone won't be updated to android 13 anyway. The drawbacks are banking apps of course and the fact that i could lose my internal storage data if i forget to flash disable forced encryption.
yes, grapheneos on pixel 7
I think custom Roms respects us a lot more than stock is which treats us like product
Yup, GrapheneOS on a Pixel 7a. Never looking back.
VoidUI (not de googled) because:
- the main reason is so I can keep using my phone beyond the official SW support period, I would be stuck on A10 if I stayed with stock
- The phone started to feel a little bit slow after 2 years
- Unlocked some of the performance that was left on the table with more to be unlocked!
- No bloatware
The drawbacks:
- The camera experience is orders of magnitude worse
- Goodbye iris scanner :'(
- Goodbye S-Pen features
- Goodbye Samsung notes
- Goodbye to the much better split screen and floating window implementation
I was rom hopping like crazy on my Xiaomi phone trying to get the perfect privacy setup. Eventually I got tired of microG's lack of compatibility and the serious security issues rooting and leaving the bootloader unlocked caused so I sold the Xiaomi and got a Pixel to run GrapheneOS on. Best decision ever. GrapheneOS is freaking awesome. Secure and private, and all my apps just works. It's so stable, muuuuch better than stock. I think I've found my endgame and I'm never using any other custom ROM again.
GrapheneOS on Pixel 6a
I'm using a Google Pixel and for awhile I was using stock, mostly just because after having custom roms on my previous devices I didn't want to have to deal with trying to get apps to work, I was building my unofficial lineage to get some tweaks I wanted. However I'm back to using Lineage again.
Thanks to Treble I'm using LineageOS. My device, a Redmi Note 10, doesn't officially have the ROM, and for my use case the GSI version is good enough
No, for the same reasons as another commentator said: I don't want to be locked out of a Safety Net-enabled app when I need it. Ran with LineageOS back in the day though, and it was a really nice experience.
LineageOS, withoutgooglwe play services the drawbacks are some apps don't have a notification support (some have that live 24/7 notification to make it work, but most don't have that).
Picked LineageOS for the privacy features and how easy it is to run commands (I literally just had to copy and paste commands, one at a time, no hiccups)
Yeah, I use Lineage on a Pixel 5 since I switched back from an iPhone a few months ago. My intention was to run Graphene or Calyx, but I can't get wifi calling working without gapps installed, even with Graphene's sandboxed play services and the dialer. I think ATT Prepaid is using the new wifi calling negotiation that Google implemented in Android 12. I have zero coverage from any carrier for miles around me, so wifi calling is pretty critical. So I installed mindthegapps, enabled wifi calling, and then disabled all the Google stuff again. I didn't want root, so I'm not too thrilled with this situation.
I'll be switching to T-Mobile/Mint or Verizon/US Mobile in the next few months, so I'll try again then. But I'm seriously considering getting a Light Phone. Then I'll use a Pixel Tablet with Graphene/Calyx and a Garmin Fenix for handling music, calendar/email, hike mapping, browsing/media while lounging, maybe a work account, etc. I'm also considering just limiting the software footprint on the Pixel, but.. that's too easy to override on a whim.
Another option is a Unihertz Jelly Star, so the screen is too small to do much. I'd really like Spotify in the car, and mostly just my downloaded daily/weekly playlists since I have such limited cell coverage. I'm not entirely sure if the Fenix can play to the head unit over Bluetooth.
I suspect the decades of infinite scroll is destroying my attention span and already limited emotional response, which is combining with my autism to put me in a place of pretty much near constant burnout. That leaves me on the cusp of meltdown at all times, it's not a good place to be. Luckily reddit gave me an excuse to do what I'd been leaning towards for over a year, and there isn't such an overload of content over here yet.
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Yep, LineageOS 20 ON A onePlus Nord N200 with no gapps installed at all.
i run Lineage because 4 years ago i had enough of all the tracking and switched off and deleted my google account completely. I also deted Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc accounts in the same time period. I really cant see any drawbacjs to running Lineage the way i do.
I do not, mostly because I've gotten busier and I use mine for work, which requires me to pass safety net and I really don't feel like arguing with compliance.
Pixel 6 Pro here
Been using LineageOS with microG on my phone for the last couple of years out of a general distrust for Google, using open-source apps in place of the Google ones. My phone stopped getting OEM updates after Android 12, so being able to use Android 13 through LineageOS is a plus. Main downsides are that some apps don't play nice with microG and that unlocking the bootloader makes banking apps stop working.
I daily drive a custom ROM with (sandboxed) gapps (currently crdroid, but also spark os, cherish os, voltage and others). I also have a tablet (old galaxy tab A) running lineage without gapps, which I use for reading ebooks.
I can't imagine returning to stock roms. The inconsistencies, various hacks, apps not respecting your settings and privacy invading software. What a nightmare!
Yes. They're just better on a budget device like mine.
Lineage 18 on my bacon!
Daily driving it
Just upgraded to a Zenfone 10 so running OOB for now, it's close enough to stock for me.
Before that, I extended the lifespan of my OnePlus 5 to 6 years by running custom ROMs. Most recently I was running PixelExperience and had a really great time. I used to care a lot about customization, but PE had sensible defaults and I didn't feel the need to customize a whole lot.Worst part about running unmodified stock is that I'm not rooted any more. It's been bugging me less than I'd imagined, but there are some things (like backups) that simply won't work anymore...
Yes, AlphaDroid (Android 13)
Honestly the names mean almost nothing, custom ROMs with new names come out all the time and get discontinued all the time. Just need to find the stable one for your specific device and with the features you want. I use custom ROMs mainly because I get much better battery life and performance compared to stock ROMs which are bloated and slow in my case.
The drawback is mainly you should be tech savvy and be willing to do trial and error/tinkering a lot. But once you find a good ROM you'll probably stay a long time and if the dev is good you'll get consistent updates.
There's also the banking apps problem some people have. With most new ROMs these days, banking apps should work out of the box. Now if you root your phone that's what apps try to detect but it's pretty easy to get around after research (again tinkering). It's a cat and mouse game. If they change something you'll have to update your method of hiding root or Magisk. At the moment I'm using banking apps just fine without them detecting root.
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I run lineage os
ArrowOS 13.1 on my POCO F3 and Xiaomi Pad 5
GApps version btw, because I just hate MIUI and love AOSP.
I haven't run a custom ROM in years. I pretty much stopped using them when I started buying unlocked global phones that didn't have carrier bloatware on them.
Yes to all questions. Only drawback I can recall is my banking app refusing to pass Safetynet but the website works good enough.
Would if I could, but I cannot.
I have "debloated" as much as I can, which includes a fair amount of Google stuff. I don't have a Google account.
No drawbacks. In fact, if anyone, like me, is unable to root their phone or install a different ROM, the simple process of using
adbto "uninstall" the apps nets you a few more hours of battery per charge.Using LineageOS on my Moto G7 since I got it, no GApps at all. I plan to use it till the battery gives out and then get myself a latest Pixel and install GrapheneOS on it. De-googled Android is probably the best compromise of privacy/functionality you can get, Linux phones sadly are just not there in both hardware and software and I have no desire to trap myself in Apple's walled garden prison.
crDroid (android 13), no Google anything, no microG, works fine. I have a 6 year old phone and this is the only way to run current software. ran lineageOS 18 before this, nuked it when charging was acting out; wasn't its fault.
Nope. Pixel 6 Pro.
I used to. I haven't been able to find a good custom ROM for my current phone (LG V60).
Running /e/ OS on a 1+ 7 Pro
No.
On my current phone, no, because I want to be able to use Google Wallet and pay with it. On my old phones yes I unlock bootloader and install some kind of custom ROM to play with them.
I'm running LineageOS on a Moto G42. I bought this device with LOS in mind (also it is one of the very few devices with headphone jack and MicroSD slot). So far I'm happy. I always rooted/custom flashed every device since 2012. I'm no longer rooting anymore though. Shizuku is sufficient for my needs.
I use GrapheneOS on my Pixel 5, even though I didn't want to use Custom ROMs anymore.
I run it mainly because of sandboxed Play Services (i. e. Google services running as a user application with much less capabilities, instead of a system application, like with the factory image) and the additional functionality, which includes the ability to revoke network and sensor permissions for any app.
One of the reasons I decided to flash it, instead of remaining on the factory image, was that it behaves like the factory image once it is installed. Meaning the bootloader is closed and I don't have to ever worry about updates (manually flashing the latest firmware files or the latest gapps, etc.). It even has automatic system updates, meaning it installs system updates whenever I am not using the phone. So while I'm asleep my phone is updating itself and the next morning I start the day with the latest GrapheneOS release. Very convenient!
I still download apps primarily from the Play Store (auto updates also work for those apps!) and use F-Droid only for apps that aren't available there (due to F-Droid signing most apps with their own key). But, since the Play Services and the Play Store run as a user app, I am at least able to take all permissions away from them, which should reduce the amount of data that can be collected by them.
There are drawbacks though, one of them is the lack of Pixel features. Those missing features include adaptive charging and sound output improvements, which results in degraded speaker quality on GrapheneOS, especially with newer Pixel phones (verified on a Pixel 7).
In the future I hope to ditch Android altogether on my main phone and switch to a Linux phone (and have a cheap Android phone, or a compatibility layer, for disrespectful companies, like banks or EV charging providers, that force me to install an Android or iOS app), but I haven't seen the right Linux phone hardware for me yet. I plan to replace my Pixel 5 when Android 15 releases (as Android 14 is the last major update for it), so maybe I can switch to a Linux phone by then. :)
I'm running LineageOS for many years now, currently using LineageOS4MicroG on a Motorola because I really need good GPS.
I run LineageOS on my Nexus 6, to get ongoing security updates. I also keep one other sacrificial phone running stock android with bootloader locked, so no more security updates, but I don't run anything on it but my banking app, since it's too insecure.
I am running Paranoid Android Topaz 4 on my OnePlus 7T. No fancy features, but very stable. Just like Roman Empire.
I run degoogled LineageOS
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For privacy, I thought about running a de googled custom ROM. Then I did some risk assessments of common apps and realized that every app relies on multiple libraries and these libraries all have telemetry. Even major apps that you would think kick down their user data so bit even consider the data being hovered up by the libraries.
This means that there are probably 20+ data agrogators constantly pulling your data unless you don't install a single app on your phone. Next option is a dumb phone, but even the "dumb phones" at the store are just Android with a locked down UI.
I consider it a lost cause at this point.
If you want privacy, buy some land in the mountains, put a big tarp over it, and never leave. :(
If you want more control over the OS to do things that users usually can't do, than it makes sense to root.
3 phones from my family, all running CRDroid. Can't stand with MIUI and their trackers.
Redmi Note 4 is the champ here - bought in Sep 2017, almost 7 years old. Used MIUI for the first 15 days to unlock bootloader.
Poco X3 - 2.5 years old. Redmi Note 10 Pro - 1.25 years old.
Yes, lineage OS without Google. Everytging still works fine, even playstore with Autor store frontend
Yep, still running LineageOS rooted and with microG (not LOS for microG though)
There are multiple reasons why I'm still doing it, like better privacy and fixing the Quick Access menu in Android 13 I couldn't do without.
I have stopped ROM hopping though compared to a few years ago. I just have to hope the Lineage team continues to do the amazing job they've been doing since Cyanogen died.Depends, is OxygenOS considered custom? I'm running a rooted and largely (manually) degoogled stock version.
I'm using Paranoid Android in my Poco F2 Pro , I like more the smoothness and visuals of AOSP against MIUI, especially since A12 when Material You and Monet features were introduced, before only smoothness was my motivation.
I am using CrDroid the last 5 years ( 1 year with google play services, 3 years with microg, 1 year degoogled)
I would like to but I use Samsung devices mostly and they lock down their hardware harder than Fort Knox unfortunately. What are some manufacturers that do allow you to install custom roms on their devices?
Yes. I wouldn't have if it wasn't that OxygenOS keep killing my background apps.
Daily driver - pixel 7 pro stock
OSRS AFK phone - OnePlus 7 pro LineageOS - haven't really had any issues, like the UI over OxygenOS
I would, if not for a combination of a few factors:
Firstly, I currently own an S22 that can't be unlocked, but I'm loathe to trade away a perfectly good phone so soon.
Secondly, Pixels (which seem to be the best supported in the custom ROM scene?) are still kinda shit hardware wise. At minimum they need a proper ultrasonic fingerprint sensor before I consider switching.
And finally, I don't have a strong enough motivation to switch.
I'm concerned about my privacy, yes, but at the same time I really don't do anything interesting with my phone. Most of my computation happens locally on my Linux desktop, far out of reach of any prying eyes.
And it's not like they can use what little information they can harvest for anything, since all my devices are juiced to the gills with adblockers.
No. I recently tried a couple of custom ROMs, but I went back to using stock MIUI12.
In my case, I don't think the custom ROMs were the issue though. I think Android 12/13 have bluetooth issues.
Still am because miui is shit
Yes I'm running a custom ROM. I'm using Cdroid 9.7 on my Poco f3. Xiaomi's hardware is great, but I don't like MIUI too much. Using a custom ROM i can get a experience close to having a Pixel device which is great.
A custom ROM? No. An unlocked bootloader, standard ROM, & custom kernel? Yes.
Not at the moment. I would love to run lineageOS, etc, but I keep buying phones they don't support, and at this stage, most of the things I used to need rooting for are no longer as necessary for me.
Years ago I played with custom ROM on my android tablet but never on my main phone.
But times change and now I'm checking out LineageOS 20 to see how well it would work for my grandparents. Their phones are no longer supported while still perfectly functional.
I installed LineageOS 20 a few days ago and I love it. I wanted to extend my OnePlus 6t lifetime but needed my bank apps so it is not de-googled (yet). I don't know if it because of the custom ROM or just a factory reset but I am trying to run as many as possible foss apps and preparing for a de-googled experience
I would, if my Samsung phones didn't have locked bootloaders.
It's so nice to see folks here moving away from Google. I hope I can get there too.