Are Custom Android ROMs dead in 2024? Let's find out!
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Host, Writing: Gvidas Mirinauskas
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#android #customrom #surfshark
I just found out that the Pixel Experience project has been shut down. This is incredibly sad as I've used that ROM on the phone you see in the video for years :(
pixel experience was useless anyway just flash the pixelify module on any rom same thing
Yea this is like the dark ages of ROMs
@@AliElwasief Combine it with Google continuously tinkering safetynet to make it fail on custom ROMs
I use Project Elixir and it's pretty good after Pixel Experience got shut down
@niveZz- There is pixelos too and crdroid can do similar features
Yes, but you forgot to mention that Google Wallet and NFC and banking apps is a pain in the butt, yeah it's bypassable but very complicated..
Thanks for mentioning that I've heard people having issues with that
Uhh ... I have a rooted lineage os S9 and with a few magisk modules it work perfectly and never broke for 1yrs now (bypass techniques are quite stable)
@@spectralo how good is it rooted? i have a lineage s9 rn but not rooted
it's not complicated, 1 magisk module and fp changer if module doesn't work
uhh no? if you dont root your phone you shouldnt have any of those problems. if you do root your phone, just install play intergrity fix in magisk. takes at most a minute to do it. its crazy how most complains towards custom roms stem from being uneducated about them.
the roms these days get OTA updates just like OEMs. so what you said in the video is false.
yeah
Yes . There are soo many good roms like . Lineage os , Evolution x , project elixer, voltage os , etc
Maybe he not geek at this point
@@ChachaChichundarAmericans don't know any of this . Custom roms are "dead" only in the US.
Yeah Exactly...
GrapheneOS has none of these issues. It actually gets updated faster than stock pixel because it pulls directly from AOSP!
8:25 that is the main issue for a lot of us - we grew old, and settle for stuff that's good enough that lets us do what we need, or have enough money to buy new things we want. I used to be a rooting and Stock Android fan, now I just settle with a Samsung A-series phone and be done with it.
Sad but true
This. I used to customize everything with my computer or phone when I was younger. Now I just leave it all at default. Change stuff a bit from time to time but nothing major. It becomes to much of hassle to customize your device especially when it’s time to replace it. That’s what i appreciate about iphones, it’s decent looking, no need for major customization. And more importantly continuity and familiarity.
@@neilfordan the good thing is that modern devices are generally better about keeping and exporting your settings and preferences. Outside of banking and encrypted chat backups, didn't even need to re-login for most stuff when I switched from A14 to A55. On the other side, Linux's xdg folders make it so easy to backup and restore most of your stuff, be it manually, with an app, or with chezmoi or nix home-manager. It's really is just Windows that remains annoying for me.
the big tech won the war
For me I'm just old enough to be satisfied of what i have in my phone, but during my days of cfw geek it's wild
I will always use a custom rom to get the latest software updates on my phone because unlike most people i only replace my phone when its unusable and for me a custom rom made my Samsung galaxy A5 2017 faster and the last stock update on it was android 8 and with a custom rom i could get android 14 with 0 bloatware
Me too
I use crdroid 7 in my galaxy a5 2017 and works without problems
same imma put android 13 on a mi 9t pro /k20 pro
Same like im running lineage OS too on my galaxy note 8, since it's oem android got it's last update in 2022....which is too outdated and unsecure!!!
2014-15 was the best time for it. Nowadays, manufacturers have locked down their hardware so far down. I see it as a form of tyranny. If you try these things now, you have a higher chance of not getting it done, and highly risk it getting bricked even if you follow exact instructions
This is the real reason, we didn't "grow out of it" it was stolen from us
Noone needs custom ROM because of Chinese phone already providing themes option.
Only reason why im using custom roms is when the OEM rom stops being supported while other roms like project elixir updates it to A14 from A11
I was a flashholic. Can't even name those rom. It all started from my Samsung galaxy tab 2 later OG Oneplus one. I used to change roms almost every 2 days. I had a free time then. Now I have job and can't put so much effort I backup, restore, fixing bugs. Also I'm from India and we depend on online payments and root is big nono for them. Yes I can do safety check but where's the time. I guess I'm grown. Do I miss those days? Yes, absolutely. I wish I can go back and get those free time to tinkering
Wait do UPI apps have a problem with rooted devices?
@@preyaskhuntia2190yes
Nope.. UPI apps work with no issues if you configure it correctly, Or better, many roms/kernels now come with KSU support, which is by far the closest to root permission on Linux, and raise no issues, and 0 setup needed.
@@SreejithKSGupta Thing is, back then phones weren't that integrated to our everyday lives. So tinkering with a daily driver didn't affect much. Now the smartphone is literally an extension of you, so tinkering, even if it works has a larger risk involved. If you have a spare phone to try all this, then yes it is still worth it, but not that much in a daily driver.
2:21 I mean, you could just use Universal Android Debloater. Or even just manually get rid of it using ADB
Such videos always come out and these have been coming out for over a decade even when roms were doing great. Nothing new, people will always complain. Custom roms are important, the owner of the device needs to have the ability to change the OS, it is fine to not like it, but never discourage the idea. Promote roms, dont let the companies get rid of your ability.
Me personally, I just used customroms so I could get the latest Android version. I used a OneUI port on my Note 9 so I don't lose the stock camera quality, and everything else that is good about OneUI. Honestly, I kinda miss the Bixby button. Because you could mod it into a pause and play button
But I wish OneUI had that feature where the thing you're watching will pause if you lower the volume to zero
@@UltraCenterHQthere might be some apps that do that, someone must have though they need that, I'll look if u can find any tomorrow
@@pontiflexmortis I feel that feature would need a whole magiskmodule to work
I used to use Android Kitkat custom rom on my Galaxy S duos back in the day, which was running Touchwiz based on Android 4.2. It's waaay smoother and snappier than the official rom.
I have a custom rom on my readmi 9a, mainly to speed up and also update android to 13
Do you mean speed up?
@@John-Smith02 yeah, my bad
ah i used that phone, it's super slow. i hope that custom rom helps
@@Rimon1957 it helps, still can be laggy in more heavy apps like snapchat and also its very slow when system is loading
I had a custom rom on my early Sony phones, then LG g4, g6 and my current G8 is stock. I dont wanna go through the hassle again for a custom Rom to crash once a week like the previous phones.
6:06 idk if that was your case and if that's a feature from Android or Samsung, (i own a samsung) there is an option that periodically reboots the phone for optimization purposes (so it says), which for me were a pain cause the reboots were happening all the time while i was connected with hotspot to just get disconnected and have to wait like an idiot for it to reboot. I had no clue that this option existed and though that maybe my phone was crashing for no reason cause sure thing it wasn't overheating
security patches are one of the reasons i flash custom roms usually they get updated monthly while oems like xiaomi take way longer
purpose of security patches?
@@stoosee patching vulnerabilities in the android os for example the webp zero day exploit was quite a big one
The thing with holding the volume key to skip songs is available on some OEMs. On One Ui it is customisable with Goodlock
i mainly use pixels only to run CalyxOS due to it using microG instead of the Google play services for more privacy and still a functional phone, the bootloader is re-lockable and also does it pass safetynet with Calyx, also does it get the pixel security updates.
Can your phone alongwith the custom rom bypass the android limitation wherein Android downsamples audio quality to it's native sampling ratio??
I love the "themed icons" feature from stock Pixel Launcher tho. It looks so damn good
Why is that after his video pixel experience custom rom got shutdown
1:39 mui /hyperos has all those features
Please, i need the link to the android rom list
Although I haven't changed anything on my primary phone, I did however install pixel OS on my old phone from 2016. It has Android 14 with January security patch while my primary is on Android 12 march 23 security patch
Am on custom rom now, there's alot point which are not issues on custom roms anymore 1 build in updater is now available on roms for seamless update when updating 2 you can now spoof yout device to get banking apps working 3 bugs are now fixed based on security patch,all you have to do is report the bug and it gets fix before or when the next security patch is released 4 custom rom are now stable for daily use,theres even depth wallpaper and lock screen widget om custom roms now yet they are still stable Thanks bro for yiur opinion on custom roms and talking about them in general, people are also usung custom roms on poxel 7 or higher now, with mod gcams also
Ive been using a custom rom for a while on my old redmi 8 and its been great. Banking problems can be fixed easily with a magisk module.
Some custom rom have system update feature that work similar to OEM's rom.
also uninstalling (or disabling except if you mount system RW and manually delete the folder) it's very easy with a single adb command alternativly just use universal android debloater
exactly!!! i use this method as well and its really easy, instead of rooting your phone and install a whole os.
I'm using a Moto G1 running Android 10 and that phone still rocks. Kinda crazy really how fluidy it is. And I guess that is the only time that it makes sense; to revive old phones that won't get updates anymore. Who knows 7 years from now I try something on my S20FE. But for now even my Moto G5S is still too new to be really worth it the possible amount of bugs and issues.
Feels good to see 9T Pro still in use
The reason i don't use cusrom anymore is because mostly cusroms are so few, especially on certain phone. I used Samsung s21 fe there are so few of roms, then some brand just don't share their source code
I was too that guy in 2014-2017, once I got out into the real world I would much rather have a boring phone that works rather than a customizable phone that might leave me stranded because I didn't tweak it properly
On my case, xiaomi Added many of the functions that I wanted from roms, like shortcuts with buttons, more options on the camera and so on.
If your using Xiaomi root is required because some features are not available in my phone even it's a flagship and the support sucks.
as a lineage os user i cant agree with u. i own poco f3 and miui i hate to use. so i use Los with microg . saves battery and more privacy. and about rooting its not like before. Ksu and apatch has made rooting so comfortable and easy without any issues.
exactly!
Fun fact I main a custom rommed phone
Same
Same too
Me too
Sameeeeeeeeeeeeee bro's 🫶🏻
Same
5:43 That feature comes built in with OneUI. But you still complained about wanting to have a "cleaner" app drawer.
Basically because Google Pixel exists, we who got used to stock vanilla android don't have many options to go to. And Google Pixel phones offer little in value in other countries where they are either not supported or super expensive. And no it's not dead because for us who use affordable chinese phones, custom roms provide a lot of value
5:14 - What's the icon pack? It looks neat
Debloating the stock ROM on Android is quite easy with ADB commands, so I think debloating shouldn't really be the main reason why are going through all that "hassle" of flashing custom ROM unless you want to degoogle you phone and use it without google services.
but debloating services can have serious impact on your device though thats why custom rom exist with bare minmum apps preinstalled
Debloating using adb in my experience doesn't completely remove the apps from your device ... When u factory reset dey all come back
Stock is fiiiine but having software updates several years after the manufacturer stops supporting it is very nice. Honestly updating is not a problem, if you're running an officially supported rom and some people do have OTAs in their roms even if they are not official. On my Oneplus 7 pro, I press update in settings, and then go into Magisk and press "flash to second slot" to not lose root, restart and its updated. One more step than stock but I won't need to buy a new phone to get Android 15 when it comes out. Also with root, I can automatically backup my entire app data to google drive with Swift backup, so now I dont have to worry if I lose my phone or it breaks, which isnt going to happen every day but it did happen once when my essential ph1 got shattered to bits and it was so nice to just restore my backup when i got my oneplus 7. I didnt have to login to all my apps again and I had all my data right there.
my oneplus 7t dosnt have any custom roms anymore only like linage and it sucks and than i have paranoid and derpfest and no more and i havent gotten an update for derp in months
Have you tried Project Elixir
@@harish.g.l.k yes also trash for my phone only customization bad battery and bad performance the only things i care about and i want higher fps in games option
@@gockartzz8272if your OnePlus7T is not the OnePlus 7T pro 4g then I feel bad for you, because if it's not the OnePlus 7T pro 4G then unfortunately you don't have a Supported Project Renegade device which means no Windows 11 on your device.
Samsung has most of those features in the beginning of the video like customizing the power button and changing the location of the clock, and turning on the flashlight with the power button
Mi 9t pro user here. I'm running Android 13 pixel experience. Instead of Android 10 and MIUI 12.5. With that ROM my phone runs like 30% faster and like 100% smoother with gestures and animations. The only downside is the lack of the original MIUI camera. There is no pixel ROMs that comes with it. So I rock multiple self set up Google cameras with my own xmls. I'm kinda happy with that device but it's getting old and it's not fast enough for me anymore... Soon I'm going to go and buy vivo x80 pro from my friend. What is the custom ROM on it I wouldn't be able to use the camera at it's fullest... So I would need to compromise on the custom ROM. Maybe I will install the original ROM , but modified, but who knows.
1:28 I've had that on Realme OS for a few years
Bought a phone and installed custom ROM in less than three months
Didn't you know that you can simply uninstall the pre-installed apps that you can't seem to uninstall with ADB? The device doesn't need to be rooted, you just need to connect it to the computer, have USB debugging enabled, go into the adb shell and run e.g. "pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.chrome" (this would uninstall Chrome but it works for all apps).
They are not completely uninstalled tho. They are just being removed from the app drawer but they still take up space. It’s essentially the same as if you‘d disable an app. After a phone reset those "uninstalled" apps are back.
Not if you delete their data @@20NBA01
My custom ROM is unofficial but it has performance kernel and in general it has a good battery life and zero bugs.
I have redmi note 7 . It stock rom stopped at Android 10, I'm on Android 14 elixir rom . It's stable and i enjoy clutter free experience and some customizations that it comes with.
SRF's Note 10 Plus runs on 2021 security pach too
Using LOS21 / Android 14 on Pixel 2 XL, and stock android 14 on 4a 5g, with new 7PRO 14beta, very nice phones
Never had problem. I always ose Lineage OS on year old Xiaomi T series flagship phone.
I ran cyanogen on my one plus phone just learned that lineage os is its successor thanks for the vid
I have a rooted pixel 7 pro and im really happy with it ngl, i can customize a lot of stuff and i can update the phone really easy with pixel flasher
Now the stock Android 14 has a lot of features and doesn't need so much customozability and features like it used to. Also I like playing around with roms, rooting on my older phone with Android 10/11. I've seen Lithuania in the Surfshark VPN page. I am your supporter and viewer from 🇱🇹 Lithuania. VPN is great even though I used another for specific reasons.
Device model your holding?
Xiaomi Mi 9T
My sweet Mi 9T is running evolution X Android 14 and I love it
Same phone from the video!
3:06 what icon pack is that?
Delta icon pack
Many of the things you've mentioned can be done with goodlock in one UI
What about Android Debloater?
3:04 what are the blurred apps? 👀 Also, is IP randomizer dead? 😢
Currently IP Randomizer isn't being worked on as Surfshark is focusing on increasing the overall quality of the product, I'll share more updates in an upcoming video
@@SurfsharkAcademydamn 😢 Thank you for giving an update even if it's just in a comment for now
Do you know that you can use MacroDroid to change the actions of the buttons?
I'll check that out! Thanks
Using apps to do this might drain your battery a bit. In-built system support is always the best for this case.
Where do you get your wallpapers from
The wallpaper in the video is from Backdrops
Mi 9t Pro has a lot of custom ROMs and still maintained well.
What about Linux on phone?
ur wrong on 1 most important reason security updates. im still on android 12 and its been 15 months since a sec update. companies drop support on phones so fast
Used to develop custom Kernels and ROM back in 2014 on XDA. We grew old lol. xda UN: Gnome
in samsung phones 4g and 5g do not work with custom roms, making them useless for the main device
Im still rocking with PixelOS ROM by MisterZtr on my galaxy A12s, and the custom rom space isnt dead, more like quiet these days
Samsung's can do the clock position on stock rom with good lock
Xiaomi user here.HyperOS is sooo shitt, its full of ads and now my battery on android 14 is draining in 2 hours its basically unusable.Notifications from hours ago come up when Im using it and the ui is kinda buggy.I wanna move to crdroid, I hope I'll do it tmrw.
I'm Using Pixel Os With KernelSU root on my Xiaomi... & I love Custom ROM
Why dont you use another custom rom,k20 pro has cr droid 10.4 which is Android 14 qpr2,lineage os has a pretty lackluster selection of official devices.k20 pro has a unofficial lineage os 20 build from last year
😂😂😂 funny to know CrDroid is lineage based rom😂😂😂
For a few years now i simply debloat my stock one ui with adb. It is fast, beautiful and getting updates.
And I hate to have so many options, that's why I love AOSP Android, specially LineageOS, which I can't use as my main phone basically doesn't have custom rom development unfortunately, and GSIs are not a option in my opinion, not for daily use at least 😅😅
From Miui 12.5 to PixelOS 14 ram management actually works. The animations are also better, even if the hz is the same.
I use Graphene os and its updated once in a month or even few weeks and I like the experience
But Graphene OS doesn't have Extended updates, which means once your Google Pixel device stops getting updates, so is Graphene on your device.
Same here.
from miui 12 to stock android feels like heaven
Sadly custom roms are not stable enough nowadays... My phone (oneplus 9) has a terrible stock rom. 3 to 4 hours battery life, getting hot even just watching youtube on LTE. The worst thing about it Oneplus doesn't care at all. But I used to fix all of these using a rom called Nameless, but they stopped the development. Some other roms exist but full of bugs. Like camera is not working properly, mute switch no longer works etc.
Last time I used a custom rom was in 2015 when cyanogen (the greatest mod ever) was already dead. I tried it again for an s4 7 years ago but ultimately reverted back to stock
6:42 They are maintained by a community of people too
Current Pixels get 5 year security updates and it's sort of unreasonable to ask companies (even megacorps) to keep providing even further updates when (a) there's very few users past that support period and (b) they don't (and aren't willing to) pay anything to devs. We can't really rely on unpaid volunteer devs to keep making ROMs for old phones either (they'll eventually move on too).
Tbh if I use a pixel I'll just root it and install some customization mods like iconify
We have the same phone lol, K20 Pro. Currently on HyperOS rom
I stopped using cusrom since I need banking app in my phone.
I always saw them more of an option to give old device new life than to mod new ones. I mean, if you want to tweak your home screen, a custom launcher does the job. If you want to tweak quick settings, status bar and hardware buttons - well, don't buy a Pixel, lol.
The best stock rom is 2 xperia ui and the stock android from google
Bro using Nova launcher dont know why but guess to hide app for the vedio I GUESS
Bro said 2021 security update is like windows xp in 2024... Man my phone's last security update was november 2018...
Yikes!
I also have a pixel seven and I bought it just to run graphene OS. In my mind, I get everything I want from a modern android OS without all the Google crap I didn’t want. It just doesn’t make sense for me to use the Stock OS anymore. My last two phones have run privacy based customs, and I’ve really never had issues with it. On my Motorola that ran /e/ My battery life was actually better than it was on the stock. Android I used.
I don't do this anymore because I have money to buy new phones and can get updated software that way. I also don't have time to fix bugs that crop up because banks and other stuff don't like custom roms.
Bro Custom roms on the Redmi note 10 Pro are a must. They even work better than MIUI.
Lemongrass Pixel 7? Mine is Snow
Bro... You have all those features on Samsung Good Lock
07:43 i disagree here because i am custom rom user these there also option known as ota like oem
That's not true, I'm now using CrDroid and I have no Play Integrity problems.
I feel like part of the appeal for custom ROMs still is getting rid of unremovable system bloat (LG's phones came to mind) or that have questionable software update support. If you bought a non-Google branded phone, you could put a custom ROM on it and get close to stock Android (Setting aside LineageOS's customizations). My problem with most Android phones until Google announced they'd do their own in-house SOCs and support them for 6-8 years (So about on-par with Apple), is that you had to sign a legal waiver forfeiting a warranty to even flash a custom ROM to get security updates (Cough cough, Motorola) and to use a recent version of Android, either because the phone manufacturer was too lazy to support a device (A motorola phone I bought instead of using a recent version of Android, used an older version with a hacky gesture navigation implementation) or because Qualcomm wouldn't let them. Part of that is the reason why I refuse to buy a flagship phone with a Qualcomm SOC. Switched from an iPhone 13 to a Pixel Fold after a few years of using Apple and being annoyed by a lot of restrictions and design choices, and outside of gaming performance, I'm already happier with the Pixel than any of the Androids ($150-300) I've had.
I just buy used. Currently using a $70 2018 Xperia that looks new. Looking to buy a S8 next as main backup . It would be a downgrade but still really want a Samsung flagship even he it's old.
Back in the day I was used to root every single device I get from day one beacause stock skins were too bad and lack a lot of customization options while now as they improved -and I grew older 😭- I started using custom roms only for those devices who get old and stop being supported just to get the latest android features and security updates and I use them as 2ry phones. For me, custom roms still matter.