Hello everyone.

We are pleased to announce that it is time to ask for your help in testing Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-9. This OTA is slated for release on 3 June 2025. Before then, we need to make sure it's ready to go.

What's new? 

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-9 is a maintenance release of the 20.04 series with only a minimal number of changes. That said, we still have a few interesting changes:

# VoLTE support is updated so that it works out-of-box with more carriers (Credit goes to Nikita (@Notkit) from Volla). Note that at the moment only a few Volla devices have VoLTE enabled.

# Waydroid has been updated to version 1.5.1, containing initial support for upcoming official Android 13 images, among other fixes.

# Font for emoji is switched from Emoji One to Noto Color Emoji, with improved support for some of newer emojis.

# General bug fixes and security updates. 

How can I test?

We want to ensure that every release we ship is better than the previous one, so we're looking to our entire community to help us with the QA (Quality Assurance) of Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-9.

As part of our migration from GitHub to GitLab, we've lost the old QA board workflow some people might have been used to. We're working on a replacement process.

Based on the list of changes, we would love some extra attention to the following areas:

- Basic phone functionality (calls, SMS, MMS and cellular data), In particular, if your carrier supports VoLTE and you're using newer Volla phones (X23 and newer). This release include fixes which make VoLTE work on more carriers, which may introduce compatibility issues.
- If your device has an LED, please see if it works correctly.
- Whether Emojis show up correctly. (Not all of newer ones work, but the number should improve).
- Whether Waydroid works.

Testing this OTA should be easy. To receive Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-9 RC, please do the following on the device:

1. Update all of your apps using "System Settings -> Updates" or "My Apps" in the OpenStore app.
2. Head to System Settings -> Updates -> Update Settings -> Release Channel.
3. Select "20.04 Release candidate".
4. Go back to the Updates screen to install the downloaded update.
After your phone reboots, you'll be on the 20.04 OTA-9 release candidate! Of course, only step 4 is required if you are already on the 20.04's release candidate channel and this update will come through as usual.

The image which loads will be named 2024-W21 or newer. You can find your image version in System Settings -> About -> OS.

We also have an OTA-9 Call for Testing forum post where we can discuss any questions you may have about anything that comes
up during your testing.