Developers working on Xposed variant for Android Lollipop

Two developers are working on a plugin framework for Android Lollipop. The framework should be similar to Xposed, which is not compatible with the latest Android version. It is not clear whether the makers are working on compatibility with Xposed modules.

The development of the new framework, codenamed El Pollo, is at an early stage, writes Land of Droid. In addition to a test module, only one working module is available. The framework is being developed by the lead developer of the custom Android ROM VillainROM and an old VillainROM developer. It is unknown if they have plans to make El Pollo compatible with Xposed modules.

The project is to become an alternative to Xposed, which is not compatible with ART, the compiler that Google set as the default in Android Lollipop, at the expense of Dalvik. Dalvik is a just in time compiler: code is only converted to machine code upon execution. ART converts the code of apps into machine code immediately upon installation. Partly because of this, ART is more efficient than Dalvik.

Incidentally, the developer of Xposed previously said that he would not start supporting ART in Xposed until that compiler was finally set as the default. However, it’s unclear how advanced the move from Xposed to ART is.

Xposed and El Pollo allow Android users to load modules that modify operating system functionality. For example, there is an Xposed module, Xprivacy, that allows users to tweak what data Android apps can access. There are also ad blockers and a module with which settings, such as the language, can be adjusted per app.