GrapheneOS Builds Based on Android QPR1 Available for Public Testing

The long-awaited QPR1 update was pushed to AOSP on November 11th after a long two-month delay, and the GrapheneOS team are hard at work on a QPR1 update for their operating system.

QPR1 brings with it the much anticipated desktop mode, allowing you to plug your phone into a monitor and use it as a mini desktop computer. It also brings the new Material 3 Expressive redesign, promising more vibrant colors and a new physics system for UI elements.

QPR1 rolled out for Google's proprietary default Android operating system all the way back in early September and only just recently released it to AOSP, which is why the open-source GrapheneOS wasn't able to begin implementing the update until very recently.

The team found several regressions from previous versions of AOSP but they've now been fixed and QPR1 is set to hit their Alpha and Beta channels soon.

If you have a spare Pixel and want to help them test, public builds of the QPR1 update are now available, although they‘re “highly experimental” and not available through their Alpha channel yet.

Hopefully the issues can be addressed in upstream AOSP so everyone running Android won’t have to deal with the same issues.

QPR2 has released its third beta at this point. With any luck, it won't get the same excruciating delays, as the entire point of switching to quarterly releases was supposed to be to make it easier for Google to get updates out on time.