What's new?

This release of Ubuntu Touch is still based on Ubuntu 16.04.

For the Volla Phone X we are switching to a Halium 10 system image. This enables the fingerprint reader and fixes a few other problems. Volla Phone X is younger than Volla Phone and therefore was recommended to run with a later Android base. We originally released it with Halium 9, and now the in-place upgrade keeps us very excited: The updater has to flash a few critical system partitions. While it was tested extensively random errors could happen, resulting a soft-bricked device. In such a case please contact HalloWeltSysteme via their support.

Support for camera in Morph browser. Now video calls finally work! This is probably the most important feature of this OTA. Many people have begged us to make video calling an option. Now this is still only in the browser, but we think it already can be a great relief. And it is the door-opener to video calling in Apps. (fredldotme)

For some devices with FM radio mardytardi is trying to land an FM radio daemon plus App in the store to allow real analogue radio listening. While this is not fully there yet, the daemon is already in the image, the rest will come with the next OTA(s). Lets wish him luck!

QQC2 Apps will now follow the system theme, if this is set to dark those Apps will also show dark theme. (dobey)

The greeter (lock screen) has got some improvements over the already rolled out rotation update from last OTA. And it even rotates! Also the emergency bar at the bottom is now layed out nicely. (capsia)

For the Pixel 3a / 3a XL: a lot of improvements to sound quality and volume control. Also this device has now a “booster mode” enabled which will limit the number of CPUs and will configure other savings when the screen is turned off. (fredldotme)

For the Oneplus 5 / 5T: the port is now really complete, another good option to take if you need a phone that “just works (tm)” (Flohack74)

-WebGL finally turned on for most devices (dobey, mariogrip)

Dialpad autocomplete in the dialer app: While typing numbers you will see contacts appearing that fit the number you are typing. Press the contact to shortcut the dialling process (lduboef)

Some older devices (Legacy or Halium 5.1 ports) with 32bit (armhf) images seem to struggle with WebRTC and/or WebGL quite a bit. WebGL is turned off (blacklisted) for:

BQ E4.5 and E5
Meizu MX4
Nexus 4
Nexus 7 2013

Those were blacklisted since they cause Morph browser to crash.

If WebGL or WebRTC simply wont work on your older device and its not listed here, please drop us a message in the forum!

Pixel 2 and 2 XL: while the devices are improving currently the power consumption is really high. This is due to sleep deprivation when WiFi is enabled and the device is connected to an AP. Its not optimal, but with not using WiFi that much the power consumption can be managed.

Existing users of Ubuntu Touch on Stable channel (which is selected by default in the UBports Installer) will receive the OTA-22 upgrade by using the Updates screen of System Settings. Devices will randomly be allocated the update from today through. This spread is to give us a breathing space to stop the roll out of any bad update (should that ever become necessary), and is not to accommodate any bandwidth restrictions.

Note also that starting with OTA-22 we try to bring back the broadcast facility, which will send each device a trigger message. If the device can find its update, it will be downloaded for you and when everything is ready, a notification will pop up and you can install right away. This only works if you have set up that updates can be downloaded automatically.

If however you would like to receive the update immediately, turn on ADB access and issue the following command over `adb shell`:

sudo system-image-cli -v -p 0 --progress dots

Your device should then download the update and install it. This process may take a while, depending on your download speed.

You will find instructions for installing Ubuntu Touch on your device at devices.ubuntu-touch.io.