Customed Android Rom days are numbered, and Google is to blame

Android was synonymous with freedom. If you do not like the interface or the bloatware of your phone, you can simply install a personalized ROM – the familiar term for a fork version of the Android operating system. But this golden era disappears quickly, because another large Android fork has encountered problems.

Calyxos, a major Android distribution focused on privacy, announced a sudden frost On future versions earlier this month. Although the project is not completely dissolved, it will not receive any updates in the predictable future. This news coincided with the departure of two of the most recognizable leaders in the project. Needless to say, zero security updates would be a death death knell for any operating system, but it is even more problematic for an Android fork focused on confidentiality.

Although the decrease in the interest among the masses has not helped the personalized ROMs, the changes from Google to Android only aggravated the situation. Calyxos is not the first project to weaken under these pressures, and it will probably not be the last.

Calyxos is an operating system focused on confidentiality which offers a high -way experience while maintaining most of the modern Android conveniences.

While I personally favored its competitorGrapheneos, over the years, alternatives such as calyx. Until recently, Calyxos has applied for support for more than two dozen devices, including the Google Pixel range, a handful of Motorola phones and the Fairphone. This strongly contrasts with Graphèneos, which requires a list of laundry functionality that only the Pixel series has filled so far. In addition, the latter only supports the devices with an active management of the manufacturer, while Caliyxos only removed the support of the Pixel 4A series.

The graphene and the chalice, however, adopt radically different security approaches, and also differ in their support for Google applications. Calyx uses Microg, which is an open source implementation of Google’s reading service libraries. In short, it allows you to take advantage of most of the features you expect from an Android phone without ever installing the proprietary applications of Google. Graphèneos, on the other hand, strongly sandy all Google applications since it cannot access the data on your phone.

Grapheneos hardens and also extends the Android safety model with several new features, ranging from Google sandbox above all new authorizations and features, such as a constraint spindle. Calyxos does not go so far in the name of security, but it is always a very viable choice for those who seek to remove the influence of Google from their devices.

Unfortunately, however, the project is now interrupted for the next four to six months – if not more. In an open letter, an anonymous member of the team said that it would take time to “upgrade the technological infrastructure by supporting the development of Calyxos” and improve documentation. This is not the first time that a personalized ROM has taken a break; The Android and Pixel paranoid experience has seen intermittent development until they finally stopped existing, although Caliyx assured its users that it will be back. We do not know anything else in terms of the team, but we know that the project leaders have suddenly resigned.

With the Calyx break, Graphèneos is now the only main Android confidentiality bone on the left. I think the project is doing a lot, and I wrote a lot about its many features, but it has its limits. Google only sells the Pixel range in a handful of countries, which makes graphens relatively inaccessible. Many also consider that the only way to escape Big Tech foreigners is to buy Google equipment. However, this is the only choice for anyone about privacy now.

The Calyxos team will almost certainly not develop construction for the new Pixel 10 series immediately, and they even drawn all the download links to the past outings at some point. Although the latter was restored, I would not make an operating system not supported without updating on the horizon. In addition, when new constructions start deploying, the team says that all users will have to carry out a new installation anyway. The question of whether the chalicelos will come back will remain clear at this stage, but the challenges it is confronted with is in no way unique.

The choice of equipment has played a big role in the decline in the development of personalized ROMs over the years. Brands like LG and Essential offer generous flexibility to modders, but these brands have long left the smartphones market. Sony remains, but he has become too much niche for a community to train.

The most disappointing transition must perhaps be OnePlus, which began by courting amateurs with starting chargers and an easy active commitment on developer forums. The OnePlus One was the first consumer phone to execute Cyanogenmod (now Lineageos). Over time, however, the company got closer to the traces of OPPO, offering less resources to developers and practically no recognition of the community that has built the brand.

This leaves Motorola, Samsung and Google, whose devices constitute the major part of the Western Android market. Even if Google’s Pixel line is open in principle, it no longer offers the same level of support for developers who made the Nexus series so popular for experimentation. And that does not help Google has now ceased to provide driver binaries and device trees for pixel devices as part of the AOSP code.

Finally, Samsung has some of the most restrictive start -up charger policies in the industry. The company’s devices contain a fuse that constantly stumbles when the start -up charger is unlocked. Even if the start -up charger is then relocated, this fuse does not reset.

Once this fuse has been launched on a Samsung device, you cannot use features like Samsung Pay, a secure file and certain business applications. Needless to say, devices with a tripped Knox are also much less attractive on the market used. But it gets worse. We have spotted signs that Samsung could end the management of the start -up charger with the following version of the user interface.

Just in 2025, Google and Samsung may have given significant blows to the personalized Roma scene. But it’s just on the hardware side of things – the software restrictions are also disastrous and almost explain why so few customary Android Roms exist today.

Many may remember the verification of Google Safetynet as the first major obstacle to the development of personalized ROMs. It checked the integrity of the device, and if the phone failed, certain applications – in particular banking and payment services – would refuse to execute. However, Safetynet was finally defeated via creative bypass solutions, and many users have continued to execute Android Forks, including me.

Unfortunately, this success was short -lived. Google has since passed to the use of the Play Integrity API, which applies stricter checks than most personalized ROMs cannot fill. Even if you don’t spin your phone and get the start -up charger after installing a different operating system, a small number of applications can always call home with Google Servkers and check if your phone corresponds to the factory. Fortunately, most applications do not require solid gaming integrity checks, and I have been successful with all my banking applications on Graphèneos. However, it is easy to see how Google can easily take advantage of this tool to stifle the Android spare versions in the future.

Overall, it is clear that Calyxos’ difficulties are endemic to a fundamental change in Google’s philosophy for Android. Between the tightening manufacturers of the start -up charger unlock process and the branding Google tools like the API Play Integrity, it is clear that Android evolves from its open source roots in a closely controlled monetization service.

Even if I can still say that my phone and my Android tablet both run personalized ROMs, it is only a matter of time until it is no longer possible.