LineageOS 24 is here: Android 17 for many smartphones

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents LineageOS 24 is here: Android 17 for many smartphones.

Four months after Google, LineageOS has caught up: The custom ROM project has released version 24, which is based on Android 17. Last year, as heise online highlights, LineageOS 23 on an Android 16 base appeared in roughly the same time window – so the team is keeping a fairly steady pace of its own.

What this concretely means for you: According to heise, LineageOS 24 is available for "numerous current and older devices" from many manufacturers – Asus, Google, Motorola, OnePlus, Samsung, and Xiaomi are named. The team has added 24 devices to the list. So if your smartphone hasn't seen an official update in months or years, this is often the way to get to a current Android version anyway.

Google has changed the rules of the game

The fact that LineageOS needed four months this time has a specific background. According to heise online, Google announced at the beginning of this year that it would only push the Android source code to AOSP semi-annually. Combined with the Risk-Based Update System (RBUS) introduced in the middle of last year, this means more work for custom ROM developers: Major security patches now appear only quarterly; monthly, Google only closes high-risk vulnerabilities.

LineageOS seems to accept this and, according to its own statement, is integrating all security patches from August 2025 through October 2026 into branches 18.1 through 24.0. "As always, we will integrate complete security bulletins and adjust the security patch level string accordingly – in all branches for which Google actively provides bulletins," heise online quotes from the announcement. Currently, this covers LineageOS 21 (Android 14) and newer. For the older branches 18.1, 19.1, and 20.0, LineageOS wants to continue backporting patches – but the patch level display will not be adjusted there, because Google no longer provides attestable patch sets for these versions.

App workshop shortly before its tenth birthday

LineageOS will turn ten years old on December 24, 2026 – and in the run-up has revised many of its core apps. Most applications have received a coat of Google's new design language "Material Design 3 Expressive." On top of that, there are substantial new features: Canvas is a new image editing program with cropping, white balance, filters, and other basic functions. The browser Jelly now supports PWA-like apps via the shortcut mechanism, the media player Twelve is said to load faster with extensive libraries and display the most-played albums and genres on the activity tab. The SetupWizard presents itself in a Material Design 3 look with new, smoother animations.

The new Updater is practical: According to the team, it received "an improved user experience and logical flow, as well as integrated explanatory hints for users" – and updates are streamed by default, which is said to "significantly shorten" installation time on devices with A/B partitions.

Flashing directly from the browser

What's genuinely new is browser-based flashing. LineageOS is introducing WebUSB tools for several common methods – ADB, Fastboot, Amlogic-Burn, and Samsung's Odin protocol. The browser then communicates directly with the connected device, "so that you less frequently need to look for, install, and run separate flashing programs," as the team writes – particularly for users who can follow instructions but prefer to do without additional desktop software.

Important to know: The web tools are not intended to replace the existing installation instructions, but merely to supplement them. In the LineageOS Wiki, the established methods remain documented – they are the standard and the supported way for every device. Moreover, according to the developers, the compatibility of the web tools varies depending on device, browser, operating system, and USB connection.

The rest of the custom ROM wave is following suit

With LineageOS 24 as a base, other custom ROM projects are now likely to follow – heise online names Murena /e/OS, iodéOS, and crDroid here. They use LineageOS as a foundation in order to save work when developing their Android forks.

You can find the complete details, the list of supported devices, and the respective installation paths in the original article at heise online: LineageOS 24 is finished: Android 17 for many smartphones.