Changelog 32 - Slick Seventeen, Awesome Applications, Universal USB Tools
Written on October 11, 2026 by Nolen Johnson (npjohnson)
24 - Getting Sentimental
Hey there! Welcome back!
We’re a bit sentimental about this release, as it precedes a really fun upcoming milestone.
On December 24, 2026, LineageOS will celebrate 10 years. It’s a remarkable milestone for a project built by a passionate community of developers, maintainers, contributors, and users who have kept so many devices alive along the way.
This release is part of that story: one more step forward, and a small moment to appreciate how far we’ve come. Here’s to the next decade. And thank you for your continued patronage, support, and belief in the project.
The last year has been crazy, but we have remained dedicated to bringing an updated LineageOS based on Android 17 to the masses!
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!
Security Patches
- Security patches from August 2025 to October 2026 have been merged to LineageOS 18.1 through 24.0.
- As always, we will merge full security bulletins and change the security patch level string to match on all branches that Google actively distributes bulletins for - which as of writing is Android 14 (LineageOS 21) and newer.
- We also plan to continue backporting and merging security bulletin patches to 18.1, 19.1, and 20.0, though as there is no “attestable” set of patches provided by Google for these versions, we will not modify the security patch level string.
- Legacy branch patching has progressed greatly:
- Security patches through November 2025 have been merged for the legacy branches 15.1, 16.0, and 17.1
- This gets closer to closing the rather exhaustive effort to backport all feasible security patches.
- The December 2025 bulletins pulled in some rather difficult to backport patches, which we were unable to adapt - but if you’re able to, push them to Gerrit for review!
- Security patches through November 2025 have been merged for the legacy branches 15.1, 16.0, and 17.1
Application Updates
LineageOS isn’t just about the OS itself: our suite of core apps continues to evolve as well. At this point, many of our applications are updated to Material Design 3 Expressive! Go check them out! This cycle brings some major improvements:
- Canvas - A brand new image editor:
- Handles all your basic photo editing needs, such as: cropping, white balance, filters, etc.
- Pairs well with our existing Glimpse gallery, and Aperture camera applications!
- Catapult (Android TV Launcher) - Special thanks to Contributor Timi Rautamäki:
- A battery indicator was added for mobile devices and handheld consoles
- Various UI updates, mainly the animations and icons were revamped.
- Etar:
- Updated to the newest upstream version.
- Multiple fixes having been sent back to the upstream repo!
- Jelly (Browser)
- Support PWA-like apps via the shortcut mechanism
- Twelve (Music)
- Improved load times with a large media library
- Now shows your “Most played” albums/genres in activity tab
- Fixed audio tracks getting stuck with offload enabled
- Improved Jellyfin support.
- Updater - Special thanks to Contributor pjgowtham:
- More Material Design 3 Expressive goodness! Alongside a complete redesign including better animations and better branding
- Updates are streamed by default! This will greatly decrease installation time on A/B devices!
- Improved UX and logical flow, as well as built-in notes to explain things to users
- On non-A/B, the recovery partition is now automatically updated on the boot subsequent to a successful update
- Tablet and TV layouts are greatly improved!
- Seedvault:
- Updated to the newest upstream version.
- Multiple fixes having been sent back to the upstream repo!
- SetupWizard - Special thanks to Contributor Saalim:
- Complete Material Design 3 Expressive implementation along with new fluid animations and beautiful assets
- Onboarding flow rearchitected
- Device-specific hooks to allow maintainers to insert device-specific pages for peripherals/etc.
- WebView:
- Has been updated to version 155.0.8059.30.
WebUSB Flash Tools
Installing LineageOS just got a little simpler.
We’re launching new browser-based flash tools for several common device-installation methods:
- ADB
- Fastboot
- Amlogic Burn protocol
- Samsung Odin protocol
These tools use WebUSB to communicate directly with compatible devices from your browser, reducing the need to find, install, and run separate flashing utilities. They’re designed to make the installation process more approachable, especially for users who are comfortable following device-specific instructions but would rather avoid extra desktop software.
This does not replace our existing installation guides. The LineageOS Wiki will continue to document the established installation methods, and those instructions remain the default and supported path for each device.
Instead, the WebUSB tools are an additional option for users who want a more streamlined flashing experience. Availability and compatibility will vary by device, browser, operating system, and USB connection, so please read the tool’s guidance carefully before proceeding.
As always, flashing custom software carries risk. Back up anything important, confirm that you have selected the correct files and device, and follow the instructions presented by the tool.
You can try the new flash tools at flash.lineageos.org.
We’re excited to offer another way to make installing LineageOS more straightforward, while keeping our established documentation and workflows intact.
Massive thank you to Contributors Nicholas Lim and Luk1337 for their hard work on these!
CI/CD Improvements
We’ve done a lot of work to ensure submissions are properly tested and pre-reviewed, as well as build-tested:
Continuous Integration (CI) posts CI+1/CI-1 votes on most application repos, as well as several other core repos. This CI runs things like:
- pre-commit to run any number of processes
- lint/clang-format/other formatting checks
- REUSE compliance/licensing checks
- Many more specific uses per-repo
Continuous Deployment (CD) now pushes APKs and other such build artifacts in a GitHub Actions run each time a commit is merged.
A11Y Accessibility Audit
LineageOS just completed a full end-to-end installation process and application suite Accessibility Audit that was performed free-of-charge by the a11y project!
We are greatly appreciative of their amazing work on this audit! The goal was to make LineageOS more accessible - and some changes such as recovery navigation/UI have already seen reworking.
We are also very thankful for the free accessibility-in-development training they gave over 40 contributors in a web-seminar!
Stay tuned for more information, and potentially a future blog post on outcomes!
Deprecations / Legacy Devices
Overall, we feel that the 24.0 branch has reached feature and stability parity with 23.2 and is ready for initial release.
LineageOS 24.0 will launch building for a decent selection of devices, with additional devices to come as they meet the requirements specified by the Charter and are made ready for builds by their maintainer.
We would also like to announce formally that even though some devices using Linux Kernel versions 4.4 and 4.9 have been ported to LineageOS 23.2 and 24.0, we have decided to only accept LineageOS 22.2 submissions for these devices. The legacy kernel versions and devices associated with them carry countless platform commits that are rather hacky and difficult to continue to pull forward to newer Android versions.
LineageOS 22.2 still supports many devices running 4.4 and 4.9, and will continue to receive
builds and security patches merged monthly until Google stops distributing official security-bulletins
for Android 15 - and you can still submit new LineageOS 22.2 devices for official builds!
In addition, on LineageOS 23.2/24.0 we’re currently only shipping kernels that have 1:1 eBPF backports, build fully without GCC, and have many other important backported features.
Upgrading to LineageOS 24.0
To upgrade, please follow the upgrade guide for your device by navigating to it here and then by clicking on “Upgrade to a higher version of LineageOS”.
If you’re coming from an unofficial build, you need to follow the good ole’ install guide for your device, just like anyone else looking to install LineageOS for the first time. These can be found at the same place here by clicking on your device and then on “Installation”.
Please note that if you’re currently on an official build, you DO NOT need to wipe your device, unless your device’s wiki page specifically dictates otherwise, as is needed for some devices with massive changes, such as a repartition.
Careful Commonization
Several of our contributors have been working hard on SoC-specific common kernels that others can base their kernels on, and merge on a somewhat regular basis to pull in the latest features/security patches to save maintainers additional effort.
Go check them out and consider basing your device kernels on them!
Supported SoCs right now are:
Moreover, many legacy devices require interpolating libraries that we colloquially refer to as “shims” - these have long been device and maintainer managed, but this cycle we have decided to commonize them to make the effort easier on everyone and not duplicate effort!
You can check it out here and contribute shims that other devices may need or add new components to additional shims and compatibility layers. Head over to our guide on using Gerrit to get started.
Wiki
The LineageOS Wiki has also been expanded over the years and now offers, in addition to the known and tested instructions for all supported devices, some improvements:
- Material Design 3 Expressive was implemented where possible!
- Our FAQ has been greatly expanded, and the page redesigned
- Samsung devices: Migrated away from ODIN/Heimdall to the awesome FOSS tool, samloader-rs
We’d also like to remind everyone to follow the instructions on their device’s respective Wiki page. Android’s partitioning and update mechanisms have continued to evolve from system-as-root and A/B partitions to dynamic partitions and Virtual A/B. Through all this change, the “typical” installation steps that you may have once expected now be incomplete or incorrect for a particular device.
Our maintainers are expected to verify the published instructions for their devices, and the Wiki provides increasingly flexible, device-specific guidance for installation, updates, and upgrades. Please use it rather than relying on old guides, video guides, or steps remembered from a previous device.
Developers, Developers, Developers
Or, in this case, maintainers, maintainers, maintainers. We want your device submissions!
If you’re a developer and would like to submit your device for officials, it’s easier than ever. Just follow the instructions here.
The above also applies to people looking to bring back devices that were at one point official but are no longer supported - seriously - even if it’s not yet completely compliant, submit it! Maybe we can help you complete it.
After you submit, within generally a few weeks, but in most cases a week, you’ll receive some feedback on your device submission; and if it’s up to par, you’ll be invited to our communications channels and your device will be forked to LineageOS’s official repositories.
Don’t have the knowledge to maintain a device, but want to contribute to the platform? We have lots of other things you can contribute to. For instance, our apps suite is always looking for new people to help improve them, or you can contribute to the wiki by adding more useful information & documentation. Gerrit is always open for submissions! Once you’ve contributed a few things, email us at devrel(at)lineageos.org detailing your work, and we’ll get you in the loop.
Generic Targets
We’ve talked about these before, but these are important, so we will cover them again.
Although we’ve had buildable generic targets since 2019, to make LineageOS more accessible to developers, and really anyone interested in giving LineageOS a try, we’ve documented how to use them in conjunction with the Android Emulator/Android Studio!
Additionally, similar targets can now be used to build GSI in mobile, Android TV configurations, and Android Automotive making LineageOS more accessible than ever to devices using Google’s Project Treble. We won’t be providing official builds for these targets, due to the fact the user experience varies entirely based on how well the device manufacturer complied with Treble’s requirements, but feel free to go build them yourself and give it a shot!
Please note that Android 12 (and by proxy all later Android versions) diverged GSI and Emulator
targets. Emulator targets reside in lineage_sdk_$arch, while GSI targets reside in
lineage_gsi_$arch, and Cuttlefish targets
reside in lineage_cf_$arch.
Additionally, targets now exist for QEMU-based virtual machine software (libvirt, UTM, etc), which have greatly improved in quality over the past year. Instructions on building and utilizing these targets can be found on the Wiki.
And one more thing… The generic targets mentioned above all require either an existing Android device, or some sort of virtualization/emulation software stack to run. Recently, Contributor 0xCAFEBABE introduced a very different kind of generic target that can be run on various types of bare-metal hardware devices.
While it’s still in experimental state, it has successfully booted on:
- Common x86_64 PCs
- Apple Silicon Macs
- NVIDIA DGX Spark
- Qualcomm Snapdragon X Series Laptops
- And potentially more to come!
If interested, please take a look at the documentation here!
Translations
Bilingual? Trilingual? Anything-lingual?
If you think you can help translate LineageOS to a different language, jump over to our wiki and have a go! If your language is not supported natively in Android, reach out to us on Crowdin and we’ll take the necessary steps to include your language. For instance, LineageOS is the first custom Android distribution that has complete support for the Welsh (Cymraeg) language thanks to its community of translators.
Please, contribute to translations only if you are reasonably literate in the target language; poor translations waste both our time and yours.