Cyanogen Announces "Modular OS" Program, Abandons Plans Of Selling A Complete Mobile OS

Bidding adieu to CyanogenOS, Cyanogen has now introduced a new "Modular OS program", which is slated to be called Cyanogen Now.

Through this program, device manufacturers will now be able to partner with Cyanogen to bring up their own variant of Android.

As a part of this partnership, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will now be able to use components of CyanogenOS such as the MODs, CyanogenOS Theme Engine "with the ROM of their choice, whether stock Android or their own variant".

To put it in simpler words, Cyanogen will now be selling off the best features of the CyanogenOS piece by piece to other OEMs in exchange of some hefty sums. If a manufacturer enters into this partnership with Cyanogen, they can bring the best of CyanogenOS to their own customized skin of Android. Imagine CyanogenOS' theme engine running on MIUI, TouchWiz, something like that. If you are an avid custom ROM user, then this is like Resurrection Remix or AICP using Dirty Unicorns' Pulse, SmartBar and Fling. In the custom ROM scenario, the development is open source no one has to pay anything to access the features developed by other ROMs. So, Cyanogen is actually monetising the open source core of Android.

At the same time, with the help of this program mobile developers will be able to use "Cyanogen’s expanding Artificial Intelligence cloud services, which learn usage patterns throughout the operating system and introduce smarter and more effective ways to resolve intent and interact with smartphones in a personalized and highly contextual way".

CyanogenOS powered nearly twenty devices since it was introduced with the OnePlus One in 2014. Whether these devices will continue to receive updates or not is still unclear, but definitely, Cyanogen has bid farewell to CyanogenOS.

Source: Cyanogen Blog

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.