LineageOS 22 arrives with Android 15, new music player, and more

Damien Wilde | Dec 31 2024 - 1:57 am PT

LineageOS 22 is now official, with the latest builds set to roll out in the coming days based on Android 15 with a number of new functions and tweaks in tow.

Announced in a dedicated and detailed blog post, LineageOS 22 is the latest update for the ROM project. However, it isn’t the first to officially support the latest version of Android. That honor belongs to another ROM we have test-driven here: Evolution X.

Compared to the Android 14 release, LineageOS 22 is way ahead of schedule. Dropping before 2024 has wrapped and, over the next few weeks, will give those running LineageOS 21 builds the ability to upgrade to Google’s latest mobile OS release. As you would expect, this is based on Android 15 QPR1 and includes all security patches up until December 2024. Because this is based on QPR1, Lineage is coming as 22.1 rather than 22.0.

This all fits into Google’s “minor SDK releases” change, so updates will follow the x.1 update naming scheme. The team also toss a mention to LineageOS 23.2 as part of the proposed Android 16 25Q4 release cycle.

Going forward, this aligns well with Google’s newly introduced concept of minor SDK releases. Now, you’ll be able to distinguish the minor version of Android you’re installing. Assuming the 25Q4 release is Android 16 QPR2, it should correspond to LineageOS 23.2, and so on.

One of the biggest new headline additions to LineageOS 22 is a brand new music application aptly named “Twelve,” which sunsets the old “Eleven” system music player. The fresh lick of paint brings Material You design, a dedicated landscape mode for tablets and larger displays like foldables, support for various music library server protocols, including Subsonic and Jellyfin, and lots of other tweaks to improve your listening experience.

That’s not all, as LineageOS 22 now bundles in a native PDF reader due to the limitations on the Jelly browser. This should help if you are not willing to install a dedicated app for one minor purpose such as reading downloaded documents.

Another change brought about with LineageOS 22 is a new download page. The Lineage download portal has a dedicated dark theme for the first time, with the ability to download additional device images, plus the ability to verify downloaded files even those not obtained from the official repo.

Over 100 devices are listed as supported by LineageOS 22 – including the entire Pixel 9 series for the first time – with a further 50 now supporting last years LineageOS 21 build. It’s a big update and a welcome year-end addition. As of this announcement post, no downloads are yet available, but that should change over the coming weeks. To get started, you can learn more here.