Hello everyone.

We are pleased to announce that it is time to ask for your help in testing Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-8. This OTA is slated for release on 28 February 2025. Before then, we need to make sure it's ready to go.

What's new? 

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-8 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:

# Support for VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is being rolled out again on Volla Phone X23 and Volla Phone 22 running Halium 12 port (depending on testing results). Support for more devices will be rolled out in the future. (Credit goes to Nikita (@Notkit) from Volla).

# The ability to remove a picture from a contact entry is added. (Credit goes to Lionel Duboeuf (@lduboeuf)).

# It's now possible to connect to WPA3-protected Wi-Fi network. (Credit goes to Adam Havelka@uxes).

# 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-8.

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)
- Address book app
- Web browser
- Wi-Fi settings
- If you were affected by mobile data breakage issue in the OTA-6 testing cycle, please check if mobile data is working for you in this RC. You might be affected if you use Volla Phone X23, live in Germany, and Telekom is your carrier.
- If you're using Volla Phone 22 with a new replacement screen, we would appreciated it if you can spare some of your time testing this RC.

Testing this OTA should be easy. To receive Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-8 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-8 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-W08 or newer. You can find your image version in System Settings -> About -> OS.

We also have an OTA-8 Call for Testing forum post where we can discuss any questions you may have about anything that comes
up during your testing.