OwnROM Is Back With Substratum Support, New Bootanimation, New Customisations & More

When I reviewed OwnROM last year, I emphasized on how the users actually 'own' the ROM. Through the means of regular polls on Google , the ROM developers let users choose what should be included in the ROM. If you're a flashaholic like me, you know why we love to put on custom ROMs on our devices. If you were to consider your Android device as a human body, a custom ROM is equivalent to the clothes you would put on the human body. Now obviously, you would want to decide the clothes you wear. You can either select the clothes designed by someone else or turn into a fashionista and make your 'own' clothes. OwnROM lets you have a say in the design of the clothes for your Android device, something which not many custom ROMs allow users to.

The Marshmallow based builds of OwnROM had ended about an year ago. After a brief exile from Android development, Mark V, the core developer of OwnROM, started working on bringing up the Nougat based builds of OwnROM. The first Nougat based builds of the ROM were released just last month and since then a lot of new features have been added to the ROM. As mentioned before, users were given a chance to vote on what should be included in the ROM.

The complete list of features in the ROM (as obtained from the OwnROM website) is as follows:

General Features

Based on the latest version of Android (7.1.2 Nougat), Fully translated to dutch (NL), Voted apps being Nova launcher, Amaze Filemanager and Gboard instead of the defaults, Root access (Magisk Manager), Optional decryption, 100% overlay manager service compatible, Quick tile customizations and Improved colorpicker, 3 Minit Battery Hook

Own Settings

Hide bluetooth battery status icon, Network traffic (Color, BPS, Update interval, Automatic hide), Force expanded notifications, Disable expanded notifications, Fullscreen recents, RAM bar, Custom animations and interpolators, OTA update center, Notification count, Clock settings, Quick open, DT2S, OwnWalls (wallpapers tailored for OwnROM), Team list, Button settings, Scheenshot type (full screen/partial), Brightness slider settings, SystemUI tuner, Batterybar, OmniSwitch (  option to set as default recents screen)

Sounds

Link volumes, Increasing ringtone and Vibration intensity

Display

Brightness control, Live display, Screen rotation(0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees), Active display, DT2W (if kernel supports it) and Immersive desktop

Interface

Expanded desktop and LCD density

LockScreen Tweaks

Live lock screen, Lock screen messages, Custom corner shortcuts and Music visualizer

Miscellaneous Customisations

Battery & Notification LED control, Heads-up notification switch, Multi user support, System profiles, App permissions and Privacy Guard

OwnROM's bootanimation was updated recently. You can check out the preview of the new bootanimation below.

To help OwnROM grow, the ROM developers have setup a project on Crowdin using which the community can help the ROM settings to be translated into various languages. Substratum theme developers can use the theme resources repo of OwnROM to make their themes suit the ROM.

The reason why I love OwnROM is because it is developed in tandem with the users. That way, even though I'm not a developer, I get to have a say in what is included in the ROM. Moreover, since the Nougat based builds of the ROM have just started, a lot of features are being added to the ROM constantly and if you wish to see a particular customization in the ROM, you can make a request for the same in the ROM's Google community.

At the time of writing this article, OwnROM officially supported 12 devices. The roster of devices supported officially will only expand over the coming weeks. If you would like to be the maintainer of OwnROM for your device, you can fill up the application form on OwnROM's website. 

Featured Image Source: OwnROM

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.