Unveiling LineageOS 21: A Marvelous Android 14 Experience

Information from Nolen Johnson, Lineage OS Changelog 28.

Hey, Android enthusiasts! LineageOS 21 is here, and it's ahead of the curve this year, thanks to the incredible efforts of the LineageOS team. Usually, we'd expect to hear from them around April, but this time, they're giving us an early treat.

Since Android 14's release last October, the LineageOS team has been hard at work bringing their features to this new version. Adapting to Google's UI changes in Android 12/13 and Android 14's straightforward device bring-up requirements made it possible to efficiently rebase their changes onto Android 14.

Now, let's talk about the good stuff!

New Features:

1. Security Patches:

• Merged security patches from January 2023 to February 2024 for LineageOS 18.1 through 21.

2. Glimpse App:

• A shiny new addition to their app suite, Glimpse, is set to become the default gallery app starting from LineageOS 21.

3. Application Improvements:

• Aperture: Touch of Material You, new video features, and more!
• Calculator: Complete Material You redesign.
• Contacts: Design adjustments for Material You.
• Dialer: Large cleanups, code updates, Material You, and bugfixes.
• Eleven: Material You design updates.
• Jelly: Refreshed interface, Material You, and per-website location permissions.
• LatinIME: Material You enhancements, spacebar trackpad, fixed number row.
• Messaging: Design adjustments for Material You.

4. Visual Updates:

• A brand-new boot animation designed by Vazguard.

5. App Upgrades:

• SeedVault and Etar updated to their newest respective upstream versions.
• WebView updated to Chromium 120.0.6099.144.

6. User Experience Enhancements:

• Developed a side pop-out expanding volume panel.
• Faster A/B updates installation via the Updater app.
• Contributions to FOSS apps Etar calendar and Seedvault backup.
• Android TV builds ship with an ad-free launcher.

7. Technical Improvements:

• Overhauled merge scripts simplifying the Android Security Bulletin merge process.
• Extract utilities can now extract from OTA images and factory images directly.
• Full embrace of LLVM for builds, defaulting to using LLVM bin-utils.

8. UI and Setup Wizard:

• Global Quick Settings light mode for a matching UI element.
• Setup Wizard adapted for Android 14, with improved styling and transitions.

9. Developer-Kit Experience:

• Heavily improved the developer-kit experience, tailoring UI elements and settings for their more restricted hardware feature-set.

That's the lowdown on LineageOS 21, straight from the developers themselves. With security updates, app improvements, and a focus on the user experience, LineageOS continues to shine as a leading custom Android ROM. Stay tuned for more updates, we hope that LinegeOS will be available for out favorite SBC's soon, happy exploring! 🚀✨

Full Changelog here.