14 DAY TRIAL // If you’re a OnePlus One owner, then we have some good news for you that will certainly make you even more glad that you purchased the device.
The phone has just been granted TWRP support, which adds native Qualcomm encryption to the phone. For those who are not familiar with what TWRP stands for, we’ll clarify that the abbreviation translates into Team Win Recovery Project.
This is an open-source recovery image for devices that run Android out of the box. It grants a touch-enabled interface that lets users install third-party firmware and backup on the system. On most stock recoveries, such a level of support is not available.
TWRP developer Ethan Yonker (Dees Troy) has announced on Google+ that the Qualcomm encryption is capable of delivering enhanced performance on devices when compared to other stock Android encryption tools. He also explains that custom recovery will work a lot more smoothly thanks to the extra encryption.
OnePlus One gets new features
The new build for the OnePlus One supports the decryption for CM11, CM12 and CM12.1, as well as the Chinese company’s own OxygenOS. However, there are a few points to take into consideration before users can get their hands on all the benefits.
As Yonker has pointed out in his post, those who didn’t encrypt via CM12 after January 16 are probably not taking advantage of Qualcomm’s encryption. On top of that, the Oxygen OS team hasn’t added support for the Qualcomm encryption.
So if you care about performance but you need to be encrypted at the same time, Yonker recommends you should be sticking with CM.
AOSP (Android Open Source Project) is making a move to support Qualcomm encryption, seemingly because it can deliver an increase in read-write speeds when compared to AOSP’s own software method.
Google and other big players in the mobile industry will soon start to use the same type of encryption on their devices, given that Qualcomm supplies hardware to a lot of phone makers.
Anyway, if you haven’t had the chance to pick up the latest TWRP recovery for the OnePlus One, you can go ahead and download it from here.