I was looking for a suitable replacement ROM for my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 after official LineageOS 17.1 support for the device was recently dropped, and then I stumbled across the xda post about iodé. The combination of LineageOS, microG, and a system-wide ad-blocker instantly caught my eyes. After doing some research and comparing iodé and the recently released LineageOS+microG ROM for the Note9, I decided to give iodé a shot.
In conclusion, the ROM is not perfect, but I am very happy with it.
The good
- Native microG
- Native F-droid and AuroraStore with privileged extension
- Useful tweaks to LineageOS that make the adoption process accessible and user-friendly (OpenBoard instead of AOSP keyboard, hardened FireFox as default browser, QKSMS, etc) instead of adding unnecessary bloat
- The freedom to uninstall default apps
- Smart Charging
- The iodé blocker that easily visualizes all the requests made by each app
- An active and freindly team that actively responds to feedback and tries to communicate with their users (as evidenced by this community page)
- Support for various devices including my beloved Note 9, not limited to just Pixel devices, like other privacy ROMs such as CalyxOS or GrapheneOS
The bad
- The iodé blocker app is not fully open-source (yet)
- The update frequency is bi-monthly instead of monthly (so far)
- The iodé blocker app lacks features such as black-listing specific requests that are not blocked natively by the app (ex: graph.facebook.com from Spotfiy)
- The splash screen of the boot-up animation screen is very white and somehow seems to be a bit low-resolution
- The iodé blocker app is also very white and lacks options for dark mode, unlike the iodé news app, which comes in dark mode
All in all, the good outweigh the bad by a significant margin, and I am sure the OS will only get better with time. I think iodé is doing a wonderful job in creating a private ROM that is easily accessible for the masses, and I really appreciate all of the hard work that has gone into this project. I will continue to use, support, and speak high praises of the OS. Thank you for this wonderful project!