The days of custom Android ROMs are numbered, and Google is to blame

by dbadmin | Aug 24, 2025 | Android Customization, Custom ROM, Features, Privacy

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority Android used to be synonymous with freedom. If you didn’t like your phone’s interface or bloatware, you could simply install a custom ROM — the colloquial term for a forked version of the Android operating system. But that...

I’d pay for a decoy PIN and profile on my Android phone, and I’m not alone

by dbadmin | Aug 15, 2025 | Android, Custom ROM, Features, Google, Privacy

Credit: Rita El Khoury / Android Authority A few days ago, my colleague Calvin shared an interesting fact about GrapheneOS: The custom ROM allows him to set a duress PIN that completely erases the phone when he enters it, including encryption keys and the eSIM...

Google Messages will finally tell you when your custom ROM is the problem (APK teardown)

by dbadmin | Aug 1, 2025 | Authority Insights, Custom ROM, Google, google messages, News, RCS

Last year, Google began preventing devices that failed Play Integrity checks from sending RCS messages. Google Messages would simply drop texts, without delivering any errors or warnings. Messages now appears to be adding an explicit notice when security requirements...

Early 2010’s Android phones were the golden era, you can’t change my mind

by dbadmin | Jun 13, 2025 | Android, Custom ROM, Features, Google Nexus, HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony

Credit: Robert Triggs / Android Authority After recently reminiscing about my favorite camera phones, it occurred to me that my fondest time writing about and playing around with smartphones all happened in a rather short period of time — the early 2010s. Of course,...

I spent a good week with LineageOS, but I’m happy to be done with it

by dbadmin | Feb 8, 2025 | Android, Custom ROM, Features, LineageOS

Credit: C. Scott Brown / Android Authority Way back in the day, I used to be one of those people who was constantly installing new custom ROMs. I loved trying out all the different varieties of Android created by passionate teams and fans (or sometimes even a single...

One UI 7 unofficially makes its way to the ancient Galaxy S8

by dbadmin | Feb 6, 2025 | Custom ROM, News, Samsung, Samsung One UI

Credit: Reddit user SaidBl1 The Galaxy S8 has received an unofficial port of One UI 7, thanks to a custom ROM developer. The custom ROM brings features like Circle to Search and Now Bar to the ancient device. Installing a custom ROM is risky and not recommended for...