Google Nexus 7 from 2013 runs on Android 12L with custom ROM

A developer has released the first custom ROM based on Android 12L for the Google Nexus 7 tablet from 2013. The nine-year-old tablet has not received any upgrades from Google itself for about seven years.

If you still have a Nexus 7 lying around and you’ve done all the upgrades, you’re on Android 6 Marshmallow. That is already a lot newer than Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, with which the tablet came out in the summer of 2013, but it is not really modern. And that while Google has released a brand new operating system optimized for tablets with Android 12L.

Developer followmsi has been making unofficial LineageOS releases for the Nexus 7 and . for about five years now has his now stocked with Android 12L. That is based on LineageOS 19.1. There is no list of things that will or will not work in the firmware.

The developer does say that users can’t just take their Nexus 7 out of the closet, blow the dust off it and flash the rom on it. By default, the system partition isn’t big enough to flash Google apps to it, so users need to get started first.

The 2013 Nexus 7 was the second Google tablet to bear that name. One also came out in 2012, but the firmware doesn’t work on it. Google released a few Android tablets in those years, but has stopped doing so. Google seems to be taking tablets seriously again.

Nexus 7 with Android 12L