Back when Nougat was released, in August 2016, rovo89 said that a Nougat update for Xposed was coming in 2017. However, Nougat brought with it so many changes that it has taken quite a bit of time. The good news is that we can finally use Xposed on Nougat, as a dev has managed to port it. The bad news? It’s not what you think it is.
Historically, the Xposed framework was always a flashable ZIP. It acts as a patch, which is applied on existing firmware, recompiling lots of existing dex files. However, you can’t apply this port on existing firmware.
How does it work?
This is pretty much a replacement for the ART submodule included in AOSP 7.1.2. It’s similar to the stock compiler but adding all the required Xposed modifications and considerations. Here’s the catch: you’ll need to build Android from source in order to take advantage of Xposed. The result? A 7.1.2 ROM that comes with Xposed out of the box. It’s kind of a clunky method, but until official builds come, it will only work this way.
How can I use Xposed on my device?
Like we said before: until official builds come there’s no way you can use Xposed on your current ROM. You have two options then.
You can wait for a developer to port a Xposed-enabled ROM to your device. This is probably the most painless option, as a dev can sort out any kind of bugs that will probably arise. But this can take quite some time, and there’s no guarantee it will actually come.
The other option is to do the hard work yourself and compile from the Android source. For this, you’ll need a hefty bandwidth and a build environment on Linux. You can either use straight AOSP or something like LineageOS. However, this means you’ll have to sort out any bugs and boot issues yourself.
rovo89 is still hard at work on the Nougat version. He described himself as a perfectionist, and he wants the final version to work flawlessly. However, this will take some time. And with Android 8.0 coming next month, he could even opt for skipping Nougat entirely. So this is better than nothing.
Are you excited for this? Let us know what you think.
Source:Â GitHub
Featured-image: Android Authority
