Load the Game

Android L is now available on the HTC One (M7) as well

• Egon Kilin
• July 14th, 2014

Ever since the Android L preview was released at the end of June more and more developers have tried their hand at making it available on a wide range of devices. Initially, the alpha build could only be tested on the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013) with the Nexus 4 to follow earlier this month. Now the developer team at XDA have managed to port the OS to the first non-Nexus device, the HTC One (M7). Just as its name implies, the Android L developer preview is only meant to give us a peak at the operating system, which means that not everything works yet.

This might be considered as bad news by some, but we have to look on the bright side here. Now the Android L preview is not exclusive to Nexus devices anymore so we might see it ported to many more handsets from other manufacturers in the near future. “The port is still in alpha stage, and some things simply don’t work,” the XDA developer team explains. “Running Android L on first generation HTC One was made possible thanks to ramdisk and kernel modifications, so it might not run as it should. However, the Developer Preview was made to show people how the Android L will look like and what functions we should be expected.”

There are quite a number of features that don’t work at the moment such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Data, Sensors (except GPS), Camera, and Sound. However, the team is working hard to improve the port so that the Android L runs on the HTC One (M7) just as is does on the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, and Nexus 7 (2013). You can already download this initial build and test it out for yourself although it might be wise to wait a bit until some of the bugs have been fixed and more functionality is added. But if you really must have it now make sure you follow the instructions below. You can download the ROM from the XDA developers forums.

• Download the ROM
• Place the ROM in your internal storage/SD card
• Reboot into recovery (MUST BE LATEST TWRP/CWM)
• Wipe the following partitions: cache, dalvik cache, data and system
• Flash ROM
• RebootFirst boot takes around 10-15 minutes

If you want to check out the developer preview of Android L for the Nexus 5 or the Nexus 7 (2013) just visit this page. Stay tuned as we bring you all the latest news and updates.