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Changelog 25 - Exemplary Eleven, Ravishing Recorder, Captivating Calendar, Beaming Backup. Ohai there, it's been a while. Nolen Johnson (npjohnson) & Anne-Sophie Massé. Individuality. Customization is paramount to productivity. That’s why LineageOS promises to push for user personalization and preference. Everyone is unique and your device should be too. Security. Your data, your rules. With powerful tools such as Privacy Guard, you are in control of what your apps can do whenever you want. Trust will help you understand the security of your device and warn you about possible threats. We take security very seriously: that’s why we deliver security updates every month to all our supported devices. And to make your device more secure, lock everything behind an enhanced lock screen. Longevity. LineageOS extends the functionality and lifespan of mobile devices from more than 20 different manufacturers thanks to our open-source community of contributors from all around the world. Open Source Mobile OS Alternatives To Android. It’s no exaggeration to say that open source operating systems rule the world of mobile devices. Android is still an open-source project, after all. But, due to the bundle of proprietary software that comes along with Android on consumer devices, many people don’t consider it an open source operating system. So, what are the alternatives to Android? iOS? Maybe, but I am primarily interested in open-source alternatives to Android. I am going to list not one, not two, but several alternatives, Linux-based mobile OSes . Top Open Source alternatives to Android (and iOS) Let’s see what open source mobile operating systems are available. Just to mention, the list is not in any hierarchical or chronological order . 1. Plasma Mobile. A few years back, KDE announced its open source mobile OS, Plasma Mobile. Plasma Mobile is the mobile version of the desktop Plasma user interface, and aims to provide convergence for KDE users. It is being actively developed, and you can even find PinePhone running on Manjaro ARM while using KDE Plasma Mobile UI if you want to get your hands on a smartphone. 2. postmarketOS. PostmarketOS (pmOS for short) is a touch-optimized, pre-configured Alpine Linux with its own packages, which can be installed on smartphones. The idea is to enable a 10-year life cycle for smartphones. You probably already know that, after a few years, Android and iOS stop providing updates for older smartphones. At the same time, you can run Linux on older computers easily. PostmarketOS wants to achieve the same on the mobile platform, by tweaking Linux into a touch-optimized platform. Don’t get too excited. PostmarketOS is in very early phases of development, and it is most likely that you won’t be able to use it like a regular smartphone yet. However, you may keep an eye on the postmarketOS community edition of the PinePhone if you want to purchase a smartphone that runs it. 3. PureOS/Librem. Ubuntu’s convergence efforts did not materialize, but this has not deterred others from their convergence dreams. Convergence, in simple terms, is having the same operating system running on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Ubuntu tried it and abandoned the project. Windows also failed at it. The security and privacy-focused company Purism has its own PureOS Linux distribution. They are also working on a Linux-based, secure smartphone called Librem 5. Purism claims that PureOS is convergent, and Librem smartphones will run it. Apart from PureOS, it can run GNOME and KDE, with Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE, Fedora, and even Arch Linux. The motto of the Librem is to be a “phone that focuses on security by design and privacy protection by default. Running Free/Libre and Open Source software and a GNU+Linux Operating System designed to create an open development utopia, rather than the walled gardens from all other phone providers”. It’s more of a Linux-based smartphone rather than a Linux-based smartphone OS, but I believe that the convergent PureOS should be able to run on other devices with some tweaks. 4. Ubuntu Touch by UBports. The king of desktop Linux world, Ubuntu decided to expand its territory with its open source mobile operating system, Ubuntu Touch. Keeping convergence in mind, Canonical (the parent company of Ubuntu) ambitiously launched a $32 million crowdfunding campaign to build the first Ubuntu Phone, Edge. Though it failed to get the desired amount, it still set a new record, with over $12 million pledged to the campaign. After the failed crowdfunding campaign, Canonical teamed up with some device manufacturers to launch Ubuntu Phone. Spanish manufacturer BQ became the makers of the first device running Ubuntu Touch in February 2015 . It was soon followed by Chinese manufacturer Meizu. Those first few devices were aimed at developers, which is the reason I advised people not to buy the BQ Ubuntu Phone at the time. Two years and a few Ubuntu-based phones later, Canonical finally decided to call it quits on their mobile OS. However, UBports is still trying to keep Ubuntu Touch alive. With UBports’ efforts, Ubuntu Touch gets some updates. There are a handful of devices that are supported by Ubuntu Touch. You can see the list here. 5. LuneOS (No Longer Maintained) LuneOS is an open-source mobile OS based on Linux kernel. It may not be a feature-rich alternative to Android (of course!). However, it is the successor to Palm/WebOS. The last release was at the end of 2018. Since then, there have been no updates to the project so far. The good thing about LuneOS is – if your device is compatible with CyanogenMod, it will most probably work on LuneOS. It is being maintained by WebOS Ports with no recent updates to it since October 2019. 6. Tizen. Tizen is an open source, Linux-based mobile operating system. It is often dubbed an official Linux mobile OS, as the project is supported by the Linux Foundation. Apart from the Linux Foundation, the Tizen project is supported by tech giants Samsung and Intel. Initially slotted for late 2013 release, it was only in January 2015 that the first Tizen phone, the Samsung Z, was released in the South Asian market. Unfortunately, the Samsung Z failed to get much attention in a competitive Indian market. Despite being based on Linux, Tizen OS has been marred by security issues. Quite frankly, I don’t see a bright future for Tizen OS. It is just a matter of time before the plug is pulled from this project but for the time being, it is active and also offers studio suite for developers. 7. Mobian OS (Debian for mobile devices) Mobian is an open-source project with the aim to bring Debian GNU/Linux to mobile devices. The project is in initial phase right now, and it only supports PinePhone at the moment. Mobian has a list of applications available on its platform and it recommends using apt package management system for these applications. Obviously, this is experimental and intended for DIY tinkerers. Very pleased with the latest image #Mobian (https://t.co/5lvDquET4C) on #pinephone. It feels like an almost-complete mobile OS. Great job! pic.twitter.com/mqVXz22HDu — Georgi Koemdzhiev (@GKoemdzhiev) July 11, 2020. Open source projects based on Android but free from Google. Most of the above open source mobile operating systems you saw so far are under development and not available for a wide range of mobile hardware. Don’t despair. There are a few projects that are based on Android but customized to remove Google services from it. These Android distributions are open source and you can customize them to your liking. If you are looking for an open source alternative to mainstream Android, these projects could be a good choice. 8. LineageOS and Replicant (open source Android distributions) Both LineageOS and Replicant are open-source Android distributions. In other words, you can call them custom ROMs. LineageOS was created after the much more successful Android distribution CyanogenMod was discontinued. LineageOS is a fork of CyanogenMod. Though Replicant was founded back in 2010 by a couple of Free Software groups, it now uses the source code of LineageOS as the base. You can see the list of devices supported by Replicant here. 9. /e/ (previously known as eelo) Previously known as eelo, /e/ is a non-profit project started by the developer of Mandrake Linux. It is an Android distribution, and the idea is to have an open source mobile operating system free from Google. /e/ replaces Google services with its own services, with the promise to not track you or sell your data to advertisers like Google. /e/ will also utilize open source alternatives as much as possible. /e/ is in active development and you can try to install it on a range of devices already. You can even buy refurbished devices preinstalled with /e/. That is one of the several ways of supporting the /e/ project. 10. GrapheneOS. GrapheneOS in an open source privacy-focused mobile operating system. It is focused on the research and development of privacy and security technology. GrapheneOS offers Android app compatibility. It also develops various apps and services with a focus on privacy and security. Basically, you can think of GrapheneOS as a hardened version of Android without Google services. GrapheneOS has official production support for the Pixel 2 (legacy), Pixel 2 XL (legacy), Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL, Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL at the time of writing this article. Installation instructions can be found here. 11. CalyxOS. CalyxOS is yet another Android-based OS that focuses heavily on privacy and security. Even though it supports a few devices at the time of updating this article, it is one of the best options as a Google-free operating system while having regular system updates. There’s nothing striking about it except its Android without Google to start with. However, it is interesting that even Lineage utilizes some of CalyxOS apps for certain functions like backup. So, it’s definitely worth taking a look. Partial open source mobile OS. I think it’s worth mentioning a few projects that are not fully open source but they are challenging the duopoly of Android and iOS. 12. Kai OS (partially open source) Kai OS is probably the world’s third most popular mobile operating system. Chances are, you haven’t heard of it. Not your fault really. KaiOS was only released in 2017, and yet it is powering a huge number of mobile phones in just under two years. So, what’s the secret here? Unlike other mobile operating system, Kai OS doesn’t target the high-end, touch phones. Instead, it provides smartphone-like functionality to feature phones. Feature phones, or basic phones, are inexpensive, and having smartphone-like functionality makes them an attractive and affordable device. Kai OS is based on Linux, as it is a fork of a fork of now defunct Firefox OS (mentioned later). Kai OS is not completely open source. Only the Linux Kernel modifications are open sourced, rest is closed source. You can gauge the potential of Kai OS from the fact that it runs on over 100 million devices and Google has invested $22 million in it. 13. Sailfish OS (partially open source) When Nokia decided to ditch the MeeGo mobile OS project, few unsatisfied Nokia employees decided to keep MeeGo alive in the form of Sailfish OS. Their flagship product Jolla has met with moderate success, and has a dedicated fan following. MeeGo was supposed to be continued by Linux Foundation in the form of Tizen, but over the time Tizen evolved on its own and cannot be termed a MeeGo derivative anymore. The same is true for Sailfish OS, the core OS of which is based on the Mer project, which itself is based on the work from MeeGo. While Sailfish OS created some buzz among early adopters thanks to the Jolla devices, the company seems to be struggling. Sailfish OS is not entirely open source but focuses on privacy. However, you could consider it as an option when you are looking for a mobile OS other than Android and iOS. Honorable Mention: Firefox OS [Discontinued] Firefox OS was an open source project from Mozilla Firefox, the parent company of the famous open source web browser. It created quite some ripples with the announcement of Firefox O- based smartphones that cost only $25. The aim was to target emerging markets such as Brasil and India. Unfortunately, the low price tag alone could not make Firefox OS the Raspberry Pi of mobile devices, and, like Tizen, Firefox OS did not have any success with its ZTE devices. Firefox now plans to shift its focus from low cost devices to user experience with Firefox OS. What do you think? When I first wrote this article a few years ago, I was hopeful for some of these alternative mobile OSes. However, the present situation is gloomy, and I don’t think any OS listed here is going to make a mark. It’s not like I don’t want them to be a success, I am just being honest here. What do you think of these Android alternatives? Do you think these Linux based mobile OS will leave their mark or will they struggle for a decent market share like desktop Linux? Do share your views. Like what you read? Please share it with others. About Abhishek Prakash. Creator of It's FOSS. An ardent Linux user & open source promoter. Huge fan of classic detective mysteries ranging from Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes to Detective Columbo & Ellery Queen. Also a movie buff with a soft corner for film noir. Unfortunately, I agree with you that most (if not all) of these valiant efforts will not succeed and most will fold. I wish it wasn’t the case, but the diminishing share of Linux on desktop is a clear signal. I really hate that iOS and Google have been so successful in convincing the majority of people that giving up their privacy and control of their own device is worth the convenience of having a device that (mostly) works. I think the reason is simple: laziness. Most surveys say that people don’t like being tracked and think it’s “wrong”- but they take no action other than to complain. Complaints will not fix the issue, and neither will the government; silly and ignorant people will continue to be suckered (and buy things like the recent “freedom phone” that is anything but…). I was at the door when Pine64 opened sales on their original Brave Heart phone, it came with a basic hardware test operating system. Ubuntu Touch was an early leader in having a working OS on the Pine phone. My skill level in Linux is still rather low, even though I have been using Linux since leaving Windows XP. Originally Touch just worked, but after a while it also needed some command line ‘adjustments’ and I bounced around trying most of the OSes that Pine64 has in their wiki. As time went on I found that an OS called Debian would work fairly dependable, – this evolved into today’s ‘Mobian’. From what I understand the Mobian developers do work a bit with the Pure OS developers. I happen to have 2 favorite OSes at this time, Mobian is my first pick, but I have several Pine phones now, and I do also have ‘Arch’ OS installed on one of them. The Pine phone boots first from an OS on the sd card if there is a bootable system on it. I am still running my phones from the ‘live’ sd cards. These OSes are still considered beta, but I do use these phones everyday for talk, text, and data. I am very grateful to the Open Source community that I have been given the choice to be able to use these phones. Since I cannot contribute directly on the software, I do PayPal some funds to some of my favorite developers. GO PINE PHONE ! Open Source Android ROMs You Can Use For Your Device. One of the most important tasks faced by hardware developers is choosing the right operating system “flavour” to run. While for many vendors selecting Android is a no-brainer due to its open nature and popularity, inside its ecosystem there are a number of different firmware builds to choose from. The device’s firmware, also known as ROM (read-only memory), defines how the user will interact with your device, as well as what features will be available both to the developer and the consumer. In addition to the “official” open-source Android ROM known as AOSP (Android open-source project), there are quite a few ROMs, built mostly by enthusiasts, that differ from the original in a variety of ways. Custom firmware could be optimised to run on older and less powerful chips, to be focussed on the security and privacy of the users, or to allow for deeper customisation, and so on. We’ve taken a closer look at a few open Android firmware projects that everyone can modify and use to power their own hardware. This article is a part of a bigger guide about Embedded Android that intends to cover a broad set of topics about using Android as a platform for embedded devices. CyanogenMod. Arguably the most well-known Android-based custom firmware, CyanogenMod has travelled the path from yet another open-source ROM developed by a few enthusiasts to a piece of software with a company behind it, which profits from contracts with hardware vendors. Developed by Steve Kondik, aka Cyanogen, in 2009, the ROM was initially an enhanced version of another piece of custom firmware, and only worked with HTC Dream (known as T-Mobile G1 in the US). It gained significant popularity among the enthusiast community, with more developers joining the team in the following months. Since then, the user base of the firmware has been growing steadily. The latest stable version of the AOSP-based CyanogenMod is built upon Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, though it’s not available for all 571 supported devices. The versions based on Android 4.4 KitKat and 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop are also still supported. The ROM’s main advantages compared to the “stock” Android and AOSP supplied by device vendors or Google include screen calibration possibilities, advanced gesture support, app-level permission control, sound and interface customisation, button actions assigning, and much more. Over the years, CyanogenMod has seen a number of controversies, connected first of all to its commercialisation, as well as to the actions of Cyanogen himself. In 2011, Kondik joined Samsung as a software engineer, but kept working on his Android ROM in his spare time. In March 2013, he left the Korean tech giant. Nearly half a year later, Kondik announced that he had raised $7 million in venture funding for his new company, Cyanogen Inc. The announcement was followed by a lively discussion within the CyanogenMod developers’ community, some members of which thought that their volunteer work had been used by Kondik to make profits. They were also concerned that the source code of CyanogenMod could be closed, which never happened in the end. What did happen, was that a number of contracts with phone manufacturers were won by CyanogenMod. Among the smartphone models shipped with the CyanogenMod OS were Oppo N1, OnePlus One, Wileyfox Swift and Storm, Alcatel Onetouch Hero 2+, Yu Yureka, and many more. Cyanogen Inc. has recently gone through a significant staff cut, in which “roughly 30 out of the 136 people” it employed were laid off. There are rumours on the market that the commercialisation of the OS has proven to be less lucrative than expected, and chances are that soon CyanogenMod will be developed exclusively by community volunteers again. The firmware is distributed under the double licence—Apache License 2 and GNU GPL v2—which allows use and distribution of the software without closing the source. Like many other ROMs, CyanogenMod used to be distributed with pre-installed Google-made apps like Gmail, Search, YouTube, etc. This is no longer the case, however, as in 2009 the corporation reminded the developers that these apps aren’t licensed for free distribution. Users are still able to install these apps separately, of course. In addition to that, CyanogenMod uses a number of proprietary device drivers in order to support certain smartphone and tablet models, which could potentially be a source of legal issues. No hardware vendor has officially protested against this over the past seven years, however. One of the other custom ROM distributions—Replicant—has removed all proprietary drivers from the code base, and currently supports only a few devices. If you are looking for the help with customization of your own build of Embedded Android that was built from AOSP or any other open-source version just let us know. The name Android Open Kang Project (AOKP), a wordplay on AOSP, began as a joke when the project started in 2011, but seems to have stuck. The word “kang” is often used by developers and means stolen code, which, of course, has nothing to do with this custom firmware. AOKP is a lightweight ROM that allows more customisation than the “vanilla” option, including custom toggles, advanced LED control, gesture- controlled shortcuts, vibration patterns, application-level permission control, and CPU overclocking. AOKP’s original creator Roman Birg joined Cyanogen in early 2014, which led to a significant slowdown in firmware development. “Team Kang” wasn’t active at all in 2015, which is why there’s no AOKP ROM based on Android 5.x. Things changed in 2016, however. A few new faces appeared in the development community, while Birg himself was also reportedly involved in it again. The current version of AOKP, which is based on CyanogenMod 13, is built upon Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The ROM lists about 90 supported devices, some of which are rather different versions of one smartphone or tablet. More than 3.5 million devices were running AOKP as of 2013. AOKP is distributed under the same licences that cover Android UI (Apache Licence 2) and Linux kernel (GNU GPL v2), which do not limit the use of the firmware in commercial devices, provided the original source code is available for end users to see. The AOKP custom ROM’s code base is hosted on GitHub, where everyone is allowed to check it out, make changes and submit a pull request. There’s also a voting system in place that helps the community to highlight the most important changes and patches. AOKP is positioned as an aftermarket ROM for end users of smartphones and tablets, and hasn’t formed any significant partnerships with device manufacturers. There’s also no way to predict how actively developed the ROM will be in the future, though if you’re interested in its current code base, it’s freely available to take and tinker with. CopperheadOS. Based on the Android Open Source Project, CopperheadOS is a security-focused mobile operating system that currently only supports the smartphones and tablets from the Nexus line. It has been created by Copperhead, a two-man “team of information security researchers, forensic analysts, and software developers” that helps “companies keep their sensitive information locked down.” The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Toronto, Canada. “Google’s Android security team have accepted many of Copperhead’s patches into their upstream Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code base,” J.M. Porup wrote in his article about the OS for Ars Technica. “But the majority of Copperhead’s security enhancements are not likely ever to reach beyond its small but growing user base, because of performance trade-offs or compatibility issues.” Initially the project was based on CyanogenMod, though later on the developers changed their minds. “The initial choice of CyanogenMod as the base for the OS was misguided and burned a lot of development time,” Copperhead co-founder James Donaldson wrote in the company’s blog in March. “The project had to be migrated to the Android Open Source Project as the base, with the ambition of supporting many devices scaled back to the Nexus line. We parted ways with one of our 3 co-founders, leaving us with a bigger burden.” CopperheadOS brings additional hardening to Android, which includes zero-day exploits protection, enhanced Linux kernel security, stronger sandboxing and isolation of apps, firewall and network security features, etc. Similarly to Replicant, it comes 100 percent free of proprietary software, including hardware drivers and Google apps and services. It also uses an alternative app store, F-Droid, by default. The source of CopperheadOS can be found in the company’s GitHub repo. The current version is built upon Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The team also offers an extensive technical overview of the changes it has made to the original AOSP code in order to ensure better protection. Replicant. As we already mentioned, Replicant can be described as CyanogenMod stripped of all proprietary code, which includes hardware drivers. The project was started in 2010 by a team of developers who wanted to create a fully free and pure Android distribution that wouldn’t use proprietary software. The ROM supports only nine devices, most of which aren’t exactly new. Nevertheless, the ROM seems to be in active development these days, although the current stable version is built upon Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. In a recent blog post, Denis ‘GNUtoo’ Carikli wrote that “Replicant is being updated from Android 4.2 to Android 6.0 by Wolfgang Wiedmeyer.” Just like most of the other custom Android ROMs, Replicant is distributed under Apache License 2.0 and GNU GPLv2. Its source code is hosted by the Free Software Foundation, which also supports the project financially. Although not without limitations, Replicant could be a good choice for those looking for a totally free software to run on their hardware with the possibility of adding device drivers where necessary. OmniROM. Started by a team of Android enthusiasts in 2013, OmniROM is believed to be a community-driven response to the commercialisation of CyanogenMod. As a matter of fact, most of its core developers used to be involved with CyanogenMod before Kondik raised funding for Cyanogen Inc. The ROM is based on AOSP and offers a multitude of advanced UI customisation features, much like the other firmwares in this overview. It also allows for a number of performance tweaks and CPU fine-tuning. However, arguably the biggest thing that team Omni has achieved is a working multi-window mode, which was first shown in 2014. “…the argument that ‘nightlies are not for end users’ is over-used, and no longer valid. We’ve found that the vast majority of users want to get nightly updates to their ROM. For that reason, nightlies aren’t a playground – nightlies are for new features that are finished. You should be able to expect the same stability and reliability from a nightly as you would from a “release” ROM, [as well as being able to] report any bugs that prevent this from happening.” Therefore, it appears that anyone willing to check out the ROM shouldn’t be looking for a “stable” release, but should rather download the latest build available. Since OmniROM is a pronounced non-commercial project, it still remains a volunteer initiative that lives on donations. No hardware manufacturers have pre-installed the firmware on their devices so far, although the Marshmallow-based version of it was quite popular with the users of OnePlus One. ParanoidAndroid. It sounds quite counter-intuitive, but ParanoidAndroid isn’t focused on security and privacy features at all, but rather enjoys a good rhyme. Nevertheless, in 2015 it was called the second-largest custom Android ROM in the world after CyanogenMod and had more than 200,000 users. Like many ROMs around, ParanoidAndroid pays attention to advanced customisation, enhanced UI, and performance tweaks. The firmware, however, also has a few features that make it stand out from the crowd. These include the floating mode, a tweak similar to OmniROM’s multi- window mode which allows you to have an app window floating on top of any other app you’re working with. It also has the so-called “pie controls,” a feature that allows the user to slide from any side of the screen to see a semicircular block of shortcuts to apps and services. This feature is especially useful in the ROM’s “immersive mode” which removes the navigation buttons from the bottom of the screen. The project was launched in 2011 by Paul Henschel, whose volunteering team worked on the ROM actively until early 2015, when a few key people were poached from there by the phone manufacturer OnePlus. At that time, Oppo-owned OnePlus had had a row with Cyanogen Inc. over licensing in India, and decided to develop its own mobile OS, OxygenOS. The exodus of a few core developers significantly slowed the pace of Paranoid’s new releases. In October 2015, a news website Android Authority learned that the project was all but put on hold. “Although [Matt Flaming, one of ParanoidAndroid’s project leads] didn’t have any official statement to share from the team, Flaming relayed to us that the remaining members at PA have become too busy with their lives to continue working on the project,” the story went. “You see, the dev team has always been extremely small, so when everyone seems to have more important things to work on it can be difficult to get work done. Some of the members are focusing on finishing up college and have other important things going on.” ParanoidAndroid users and admirers were quite pleased, however, when the team announced the ROM’s comeback a couple of months ago. The current version of the firmware is built upon Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, and some 30 devices are supported. The source code of the ParanoidAndroid ROM is hosted on Github, available for everyone to tinker with. It’s distributed under the same licences as the Linux kernel and AOSP, which are Apache License 2.0 and GNU GPL v2. This ROM is an aftermarket version of Xiaomi’s Android build that the company pre-installs on its own devices. As of February 2016, the firmware was supported on more than 340 devices, which includes Xiaomi’s own hardware. Initially, MIUI was based on AOSP and CyanogenMod code base. Its kernel was kept proprietary until October 2013, when it was released on Github in accordance with the requirements of the GPL licence. Two years later, Xiaomi also opened kernel sources for a few of its devices, including the Mi3, Mi4, MiNote and Redmi 1S. The current version of the ROM—MIUI 7—is based on Android Marshmallow and includes useful features like a special child mode, significantly improved large fonts support, video greetings to use for phone calls, and so on. In addition to this, Xiaomi has just announced that MIUI 8 will roll out to its devices this week, which means that it might soon be backported to other phones and tablets. Since Xiaomi is a company that works mostly on the Chinese market, where Google’s apps and services are largely banned, it has created a suite of cloud apps of its own, which are included into the firmware. The ROM is now distributed under the double licence common for custom Android firmware—GNU GPL v3 and Apache 2.0. If you are looking for the help with customization of your own build of Embedded Android that was built from AOSP or any other open-source version just let us know. Summary. The choice of custom Android firmware builds is getting wider by the day, but it appears that there are still a few core projects which the community is building upon. Going for one of the most popular and actively developed ROMs would be the least risky option, while those interested in more niche features can try out lesser-known options. At the end of the day, there’s always the possibility of talking to the developers to try and work out a solution which is tailor-made for your situation. Have you already tried to get a custom Android ROM working on your hardware? Share your experience in the comments section! 15 best open-source Android apps with source code for developers to practice. Most of us used to aware of open-source software available for pc — mainly Linux, but we forget about another major platform — smartphones. And in this article, we are discussing some of the best open-source Android apps with source code for developers to enrich their Android development skills. The open-source community is always an opportunity for upcoming developers to learn software development. Because a source code for open- source software is always available for public and developers can utilize it to understand the working and coding from its scratch. In short, open- source projects are learning curves for newbie developers. When it comes to the smartphone market, Android has the major shares and millions of apps are out there for Android devices. And most of these apps are either coded in Java or Kotlin. And to learn Android development, one must know the basic understanding of one of these programming languages. Even though if you successfully learned the basic coding principles, sometimes newbie coders struggle to develop their first couple of Android apps. This is because of the lack of reference — I mean they didn’t get enough example apps to look into its codes to get some ideas to proceed during initial days. There comes the importance of open-source Android apps. Open-source Android apps help emerging Android developers to learn the coding structure of fully working Android apps. They can even alter these codes and modify the same Android open-source apps. If you are an experienced Android developer, you can contribute new features and functionalities to these open-source Android apps and help the project to grow on. Enough gibber gabber, here are some of the best open-source Android apps with source code link to boost your Android development skills. Best open-source Android apps with source code: 1. Telegram. Telegram is one of the mostly used encrypted instant messaging service available for Android and iOS. Learn from the Telegram code — how an instant messaging app with super security works. Google Play: Telegram. Source code: GitHub. 2. Lawnchair Launcher. Lawnchair Launcher is a simple open-source Android launcher app bringing Pixel features. If you are developing a new Android launcher, then refer the codes of Lawnchair, because it may help you to integrate different Android customization options to your app. Source code: GitHub. 3. Minimal ToDo. Minimal ToDo is a lightweight Android app for the to-do list. This app will help beginners to develop a simple yet powerful to-do list app. Google Play: Minimal ToDo. Source code: GitHub. 4. Amaze File Manager. Amaze File Manager is a lite file manager app for Android with material design guidelines. There are a lot of things you can learn from this app, like how to manage files on SD cards, cloud services support, AES Encryption and Decryption of files for security, etc. Source code: GitHub. 5. Open Camera. Open Camera is a fully featured and open-source camera app for Android devices. The project will help you know about how to add the auto- stabilization option on a camera app, how to take photo remotely by making a noise, multi-touch gesture and single-touch control on the camera app, etc. Google Play: Open Camera. Source code: SourceForge. 6. OmniNotes. Fully-featured lightweight open-source Android note-taking application. With OmniNotes app source code will help to develop your own note talking application with features like basic add, modify, archive, trash and delete notes actions, insertion of an image, audio and generic file attachments in notes, including a To-do list feature on your note app, etc. Google Play: OmniNotes. Source code: GitHub. 7. Super Clean Master. Similar to Clean Master app, Super Clean Master is used to clean up some junk data from your Android device. Super Clean Master project will help you to understand the collection and detection of junk files and how to handle it in an elegant way. the project is a little bit complicated, it will take some time for beginners to fully grasp the source code. Google Play: Not Available. Source code: GitHub. 8. AntennaPod. AntennaPod is a podcast manager and player that gives you instant access to millions of free and paid podcasts. This open-source Android app will teach you different integration techniques, managing playback settings, etc. Google Play: AntennaPod. Source code: GitHub. 9. TimberX Music Player. TimberX Music Player is one of the new open-source Android apps written in Kotlin. TimberX comes with a simple UI with great features. The app source code will help you learn databinding and dependency injection with KOIN. The app has cross-platform support — it works on phones, Android Wear, Android Auto, Chromecast and other cast devices and Google Assistant. Source code: GitHub. 10. LeafPic. LeafPic is a fluid, material-designed alternative gallery app for Android. It comes with all stock gallery features and the source code is really a helpful guide for a beginner Android developer. Google Play: Not Available. Source code: GitHub. 11. K-9 Mail. K-9 Mail is an open-source email client for Android with support for multiple accounts, search, IMAP push email, multi-folder sync, flagging, filing, signatures, BCC-self, PGP/MIME & more. This project helps you to understand the working of an email client and how to implement IMAP, POP3, and Exchange 2003/2007. Google Play: K-9 Mail. Source code: GitHub. 12. Easy Sound Recorder. Easy Sound Recorder is a simple open-source sound recorder app with material design. The project will help you to learn Android voice recording integration and manipulation in apps. Source code: GitHub. 13. FreeOTP Authenticator. FreeOTP is an open-source 2FA authenticator developed by Red Hat. The app source code teaches you the working of an authenticator app, how to generate one-time passwords on your mobile devices which can be used in conjunction with your normal password to make your login nearly impossible to hack. Source code : FedoraProject. 14. Keepass2Android Password Safe. Keepass2Android is an open-source password manager app for Android. The projects make you understand the security features of a password manager and how to safeguard and autosave passwords using built-in cloud storage options. Source code: GitHub. 15. ML Manager. A modern, easy and customizable open-source app manager for Android with root features. The project helps you to learn how to extract installed & system apps and save locally as APK, uninstallation process of apps, etc. Google Play: ML Manager. Source code: GitHub. Bonus app to get more open-source Android apps: F-Droid. F-Droid is a third-party Android app store which EXCLUSIVELY distributes open-source Android apps. F-Droid has a wide collection of open source apps for Android and with their official app, it is easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device. Also simply browse each app page to get their source code. Google Play: Not Available. Official Website: F-Droid. So boost your Android development skills with these awesome open-source Android apps from different categories. Remember, in coding, you have to practice a lot, so read these codes to get some new ideas for your next Android project.