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LineageOS 24 review: Easier than ever to recommend [Video]

Published: 10/22/2026, 04:00 PM

Times have changed. Prices have changed. Your phone hasn’t changed, but the value of LineageOS 24 certainly has. It’s only been a few months since the LineageOS 23.2 drop, and we’re already here with the full-fat Android 17 release. The initial delays from Google last year might have lingered longer than we hoped, but the Lineage team has been hard at work, and version 24 is now ready to go. For more video content, subscribe to 9to5Google on YouTube. The new online flash tool is, and I don’t say this lightly, the biggest upgrade to how you will flash the Lineage ROM on your devices in the history of the project. It is a fantastic addition and one that lowers the barrier of entry so drastically that it’s now a must for anyone with an older, unsupported handset. However, even with a lower barrier to entry, you still need to follow the traditional flashing process, but it has been simplified. Just download the files and follow the correct order. Because the new method lets you do everything in a browser window, it makes it much easier to recommend – even more so if you already have Lineage installed on your phone. Open a second browser window, follow the flashing process, and you will have LineageOS 24 running in a few minutes. Just remember that you will need to do a few things ahead of time. Back up your files, maybe restore your phone before you flash Lineage, and you can’t really go wrong. I’m hopeful that in the future, it’ll be as robust and simple as the Android Flash Tool, but it’s one step at a time. This is still a huge improvement for accessibility. We cover Google and all the platform updates here, but if you want to de-Google your life, you can ditch the GApps package. If you need the Play Store and Play Services, remember to download the MindTheGapps package before flashing. In the interest of trying LineageOS 24 as intended, we have omitted this from our own installation. Like previous builds, if you choose to forgo the MindTheGapps package, there are no AI-powered functions unless you install those and link a Google account. If you want Circle to Search and Notification Summaries, then those will be missing unless you sideload those first. LineageOS 24 has integrated a lot of the changes that were added with the QPR1 launch for Pixel phones back in September 2026.