14 DAY TRIAL // Google announced Android 6.0 Marshmallow last week, and a few days ago the build started rolling out to supported Nexus devices, but this year the Nexus 4 didn’t make the cut anymore.
The phones getting the sweet Marshmallow treatment include the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 7 (2013), Nexus 9 and Nexus Player. Since the Nexus 4 is a pretty old device, Google has skipped it over, which made quite a few Nexus 4 owners sad.
However, you shouldn’t lose all hope. A developer on Reddit has announced unofficial Android 6.0 support for the device and posted a comprehensive list of instructions you need to get through in order to build your own Android 6.0 Marshmallow ROM for the phone. There’s also an optional radio flashing that will add LTE support to the non-official LTE Nexus 4.
If building your own ROM from scratch sounds a little bit complicated for you, developer Dmitry Grinberg is also offering a pre-build image you can go ahead and flash on your Nexus 4 in order to get updated to the latest Android release.
This is an unofficial Android 6.0 Marshmallow custom ROM
Grinberg explains that the OS is based on the Android Open Source Project code for the 2013 Google Nexus 7 (which is officially being updated to the latest Android build) because the tablet features a processor very similar to the one used in the Nexus 4 smartphone.
The developer was able to use the code for the Nexus 7 as a starting point and then make changes to the SELinux policies and Init scrips to actually get the software to work on the older phone.
The Nexus 4 packs a 4.7-inch display, 1280 x 768 pixel resolution, a Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 16GB of internal storage. All this can be considered pretty outdated hardware, but it is still operable, nevertheless.
However, be advised that if you go ahead and install Android 6.0 on your Nexus 4, you won’t be getting any security updates from Google, as you’d basically be replacing Google’s own firmware with a custom ROM.
Still, if you feel like Android 6.0 Marshmallow is worth it, you can go ahead and test Grinberg’s method. Happy flashing!