Errors..issues..fixes..more errors..more and more isssues..testing.. The last few weeks have been a very challenging experience for the PixelOS team. I'm sure some of you have noticed our CI channel with lots (and lots and lots) of builds going through it. Things have been taking longer than expected and a lot of testing needed to be done, but we have some good news.

The "Stable" Release​

Anyways, a couple of weeks of "Soon" later, we are finally ready to present the October update of PixelOS [Patch level 2022-10-05]. With this, PixelOS Android 13 is officially leaving the beta stage. We needed that extra time to work on fixing bugs and implementing features until we felt confident we could change the "Beta" to "Stable".

Let's talk features​

System-wide Google Sans Font​

Smartspace on lock screen​

Optional separate Quick Settings tiles for Wi-Fi and Mobile data​

Unlimited Google Photos Backup​

In-call vibration customizations​

First-class implementation of Repainter app to allow for rootless theming​

Optional Unlink Ring and Notification Volume​

Allow removing the screenshot and screen recording limits for all applications​

excluding DRM content

Double-tap to wake and to sleep on statusbar​

Additional gesture control options​

Full Feature List​

General Enhancements:​

• Performance improvements from ProtonAOSP
• Reduced log spam verbosity
• Under the hood optimizations
• Optimized UI responsiveness
• Flattened apexes for faster access

Pixel Goodies:​

• System-wide Google Sans font integration
• Spoofed Google Photos as Pixel 1XL for unlimited Photos backup in original quality
• Pixel spoofing for various pixel exclusives
• Smartspace on lockscreen (weather)

UX Improvements:​

• Material You boot animation
• Material You colors on fingerprint authentication ripple animation
• Bluetooth battery icon in status bar
• Material style 4G/LTE icons
• Themed icons for a lot of 3rd party apps
• Extended Material You theming to more UI elements
• Add/remove Quick Settings tiles with one click
• More font size options in 5% steps from 80% to 130%

Additional features:​

• Various additional Quick Settings tiles:
  • Caffeine
  • Heads up
  • Sync
  • Adaptive Brightness
  • Ambient display
  • Always on display
  • USB tether
  • Live display
  • Data Switch
• Optional separate Quick Settings tiles for WiFi and Mobile data
• Optional Quick unlock
• Pin Scramble layout
• Allow removing the screenshots and screenrecords limits for all applications (excluding DRM content)
• Allow disabling combined signal icon
• Status bar icon manager
• Allow hiding gesture navigation bar
• Allow toggling screen off FoD for supported devices
• Unlinked ring and media notification volumes
• In-call vibration customizations
• Optional inverted layout for 3-button navigation
• Three-fingers-swipe to screenshot
• Double-tap/long-press power button to toggle torch
• Double-tap to sleep on lockscreen
• Double-tap to sleep on statusbar
• Double tap to trigger doze
• Volume button long-press media controls
• Allow disabling screenshot shutter sound
• First-class implementation of Repainter app to allow for rootless theming

Release schedule​

At last, for those who ask "wen updoot sar?????", it will roll out within the next few days depending on the maintainers for each device. We hope to have the update rolled out to all supported devices before the month ends.

After our recent announcement of Android 13 builds of PixelOS coming to devices very soon, we'd like to give a quick rundown of the changes for these builds.

The first and biggest change is our rebase to AOSP, meaning our team has built the ROM from the ground up to be as optimised as possible at every step and allows us to release builds faster each month as we only need to wait for the security patch from Google.

In addition to the features normally present in stock AOSP, we've brought back the following:

Pixel Features​

• Smartspace (At-a-Glance and weather on the lock screen)
• Unlimited original quality Google Photos backups
• Google fonts
• Pixel boot animation
• Pixel battery graph

PixelOS Features​

• 3-Finger Swipe to screenshot
• Double-tap to sleep on lock screen
• Bluetooth device battery indicator on status bar
• Delete screenshot button in bottom chip
• Single tap to add quick settings tiles
• Advanced reboot
• Navigation bar layout inversion
• The following additional quick settings tiles; Caffeine, Data switch, USB tethering, Auto-brightness toggle, Heads-up notifications toggle
• Icon manager for statusbar
• Applied Material You colouring to more system elements
• Fine tuned status bar padding
• Tweaked friction levels for improved scrolling
• Reduced log verbosity
• Remove system recording audio limits
• 2-button navbar option
• Performance improvements from ProtonAOSP
• Sensitive quick settings tiles require unlocking the phone
• Backup tools (Magisk doesn't have to be flashed again after every update)
• Refresh rate settings under display options (on supported devices)
• Font size in finer 5% increments with more scale options from 80% to 130%
• Add package name to installed app details
• More themed icons for the Pixel Launcher home screen

As always, we hope you continue to enjoy the project and we'll be back next month with another build and post.

PixelOS, the journey so far​

PixelOS began with its roots in the Davinci community (the Redmi K20/Xiaomi Mi 9T) starting with Android 10. The idea behind the project was to provide an experience as close to Google Pixel phones as possible while still adding a small amount of features that are useful every day to users, as well as some performance enhancements for a better experience when using it. Pixel Experience was chosen as a base for this, as it was a clean and minimal ROM that provided a solid base to add features to. This continued on with Android 11 where word spread about PixelOS to other communities, and soon developers began to build it for other devices as well. With Android 12, the project grew substantially into what it is now, with many talented developers coming together to add more quality of life features and to introduce new bleeding edge enhancements as soon as they were available, resulting in the optimised and performant PixelOS we have now.

What's next for us​

With Android 13, we are going to be rebasing from Pixel Experience to pure AOSP with our own added touches on top. The reason for this being that with the accumulated skills and knowledge of the much larger team we have now, we have our own processes and ideas for doing things in ways that may not always align with what Pixel Experience chooses to do. At this point it's only right to thank Pixel Experience for their hard and excellent work that has let PixelOS become what it is now, as it wouldn't have been possible without them.

What does rebasing on AOSP mean for PixelOS though? It provides numerous benefits for us, allowing full control of how the ROM is built from the ground up, letting us refine the build process further and allows easier additions, enhancements and optimisations in terms of adding or improving features in our own ways. The aim is to provide an even more clean and performant build of Android while still keeping the look and feel as well as the features you know and love.

When will it be released?​

We focus on stability and reliability, we want our "stable releases" to be actually stable enough for using it as a daily driver. For this, we would like to take our time with testing. The new PixelOS based on Android 13 will start to rollout for supported devices by Mid-September. Our unofficial maintainers can also expect the source to be made by available to them around the same time. The devices which are stable will release first and gradually the rest. We ask everyone to allow your maintainer to take their own time and not spam for ETA.

This marks the end of development on PixelOS Android 12, we thank all our supporters for being with us. All Android 12 download links are here to stay, they will not be down anytime soon. Android 13 marks a historical milestone for us and we can't wait, just like you. We will be back with another blog to explain more about the September 2022 release of PixelOS.

Some Teasers!​

The screenshots are from beta versions of PixelOS and may not be an exact representation of the release version.