Download Firmware LineageOS 21

Version 21 of LineageOS has become available. LineageOS is the successor to CyanogenMod and an open source operating system for smartphones and tablets. It's based on a bare-bones version of Android and adds extra functionality, including shortcuts in the notification bar, an extended lockscreen, and different themes for the interface. Furthermore, performance improvements can often be observed compared to the software that a manufacturer supplies itself. LineageOS version 21 is based on Android 14 and the release notes for this release are as follows:

21 – Finally old enough to drink (at least in the US)!

We're a bit ahead of schedule this year, we know normally you don't expect to hear from us until April-ish. This was largely thanks to some new faces around the scene, some old faces stepping up to the plate, and several newly appointed Project Directors! With all that said, we have been working extremely hard since Android 14's release last October to port our features to this new version of Android. Thanks to our hard work adapting to Google's largely UI-based changes in Android 12/13, and Android 14's dead-simple device bring-up requirements, we were able to rebase our changes onto Android 14 much more efficiently.

This lets us spend some much overdue time on our apps suite! Applications such as Aperture had their features and UX improved significantly, while many of our aging apps such as Jelly, Dialer, Contacts, Messaging, LatinIME (Keyboard), and Calculator got almost full redesigns that bring them into the Material You era! …and last but not least, yet another new app landed in our apps suite! Don't get used to it though, or maybe do, we're not sure yet.

Now, let's remind everyone about versioning conventions – To match AOSP's versioning conventions, and due to the fact it added no notable value to the end-user, we dropped our subversion from a branding perspective. As Android has moved onto the quarterly maintenance release model, this release will be “LineageOS 21”, not 21.0 or 21.1 – though worry not – we are based on the latest and greatest Android 14 version, QPR1. Additionally, to you developers out there – any repository that is not core-platform, or isn't expected to change in quarterly maintenance releases will use branches without subversions – eg, lineage-21 instead of lineage-21.0.

New Features!

• Security patches from January 2023 to February 2024 have been merged to LineageOS 18.1 through 21.
• Glimpse of Us: We now have a shining new app, Glimpse! It will become the default gallery app starting from LineageOS 21
• An extensive list of applications were heavily improved or redesigned:
  • Aperture: A touch of Material You, new video features, and more!
  • Calculator: Complete Material You redesign
  • Contacts: Design adjustments for Material You
  • Dialer: Large cleanups and code updates, Material You and bug fixes
  • Eleven: Some 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
• A brand new boot animation by our awesome designer Vazguard!
• SeedVault and Etar have both been updated to their newest respective upstream version.
• WebView has been updated to Chromium 120.0.6099.144.
• We have further developed our side pop-out expanding volume panel.
• Our Updater app should now install A/B updates much faster (thanks Google!)
• We have contributed even more changes and improvements back upstream to the FOSS Etar calendar app we integrated some time back!
• We have contributed even more changes and improvements back upstream to the Seedvault backup app.
• Android TV builds still ship with an ad-free Android TV launcher, unlike Google's ad-enabled launcher – most Android TV Google Apps packages now have options to use the Google ad-enabled launcher or our ad-restricted version.
• Our merge scripts have been largely overhauled, greatly simplifying the Android Security Bulletin merge process, as well as making supporting devices like Pixel devices that have full source releases much more streamlined.
• Our extract utilities can now extract from OTA images and factory images directly, further simplifying monthly security updates for maintainers on devices that receive security patches regularly.
• LLVM has been fully embraced, with builds now defaulting to using LLVM bin-utils and optionally, the LLVM integrated assembler. For those of you with older kernels, don't worry, you can always opt-out.
• A global Quick Settings light mode has been developed so that this UI element matches the device's theme.
• Our Setup Wizard has seen adaptation for Android 14, with improved styling, more seamless transitions, and significant amounts of legacy code being stripped out.
• The developer-kit (eg Radxa 0, Banana Pi B5, ODROID C4, Jetson X1) experience has been heavily improved, with UI elements and settings that aren't related to their more restricted hardware feature-set being hidden or tailored!