How custom ROMs influenced Android's best features

I still remember flashing custom ROMs on my Nexus and Google Pixel phones to gain access to new features.

Things are different now, as Android has matured and packs almost all major features out of the box.

While custom ROMs are no longer as popular and are slowly fading away, their impact on Android is still visible.

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Themes that made Android truly yours

Full system-wide customization existed long before Material You

With Material You, Google introduced a dynamic theming engine that pulls the colors from your wallpaper to style the entire UI.

It further refined the experience with Material 3 Expressive in Android 16 QPR2. Apps and the system UI automatically adapt the wallpaper colors for a more cohesive look.

However, this idea isn't new. Custom ROMs did not exactly implement wallpaper-based theming. But they experimented with system-wide theming for years, offering in-depth controls and customization options through engines like Substratum and CyanogenMod themes.

They offered more granular controls than Google's implementation. I remember tweaking the system accent colors, icons, fonts, and even the look of individual apps.

In comparison, Material You — and now Material 3 Expressive — feel a lot more automated and polished. That makes them less customizable, but it has helped with wider adoption.

If anything, Google took an idea from custom ROMs and made it more accessible — something which custom ROMs almost always failed to do.

Running duplicate apps was easier than it should've been

Clone apps and manage multiple accounts without hacks

Android custom ROMs were among the first to add the ability to run a second copy of the same app natively.

This meant you could create a duplicate WhatsApp or Telegram copy and run it independently of the first version, each with its own account.

Back when most apps did not support multi-account logins, this feature made it easy to manage personal and work profiles on a single device.

Admittedly, MIUI was one of the first Android skins to add native dual-app functionality. Custom ROMs later adapted this feature, bringing it to more devices and expanding its presence beyond China.

It took years for Samsung and other Android makers to integrate similar functionality into their skins.

And even now, Pixels cannot clone apps. Your only option is to create a separate work profile, but that's not as convenient as simply duplicating an app.

Multitasking before Android got serious about it

Floating apps made switching feel fast and effortless

Google will bring the ability to run apps in a floating window and minimize them into a bubble with Android 17.

The feature should be especially useful on foldables and tablets, as the larger screen will provide ample room to run multiple apps in a floating window.

While the addition of Bubbles may seem like a big deal, Paranoid Android added a similar feature to its custom ROM over a decade ago with its HALO feature.

It functioned much like Bubbles does today in Android 17 — apps can float on top of other apps and be minimized into a chat head.

Bubbles-like multitasking is already available on most other Android skins, including Samsung's One UI, OnePlus and Oppo's ColorOS, and Vivo's OriginOS.

The Pixel UI was the only notable exception, but that will finally change with the release of Android 17.

Bubbles make juggling multiple apps much easier. I often use them to browse a web page in Chrome while keeping Gmail open in a floating window for quick reference, without constantly switching between apps.

Quick Settings, the way it should've been

Custom layouts and controls arrived years before stock Android

The Quick Settings panel has long been one of Android's strengths. But the Quick Settings experience that we get on Pixels or other Android phones today is vastly different from what we got back in the day.

Custom ROMs were among the first to enable Quick Settings customization fully.

Early builds of CyanogenMod allowed users to rearrange tiles and add or remove toggles. This was long before Google added similar functionality to Android with the release of Android 7.0 Nougat.

Even then, the company's implementation was not as flexible as what custom ROMs offered.

It was only with future OS updates that Google built on this improvement, adding support for tiles from third-party apps, and more recently, the ability to resize tiles.

I still remember using Bugless Beast on my Nexus phone for its clean, near-stock experience and the level of Quick Settings customization it offered.

A cleaner status bar, on your terms

Hiding clutter and showing only what matters

Quick Settings customization is not the only feature that Android makers and Google copied from custom ROMs.

They were also the first to add status bar customization, allowing you to hide unwanted icons from the status bar for a cleaner, less cluttered look.

Again, in this day and age, it may not seem like a big deal, as this is a customization we take for granted in today's Android skins. But back then, it was.

I remember being able to remove unwanted icons from the status bar, including the ever-present Bluetooth icon.

Some ROMs went even further, allowing you to customize the look of the mobile network and battery indicator icons.

The power menu that did more than power off

Advanced controls were just a tap away

The Power menu on Android phones has come a long way. They once offered little more than a Power off option. But now, they pack shortcuts for Emergency mode, Lockdown, Power off, and Restart.

This is another aspect that Android makers have copied from custom ROMs. The latter added this feature over a decade ago, including shortcuts for rebooting into recovery and bootloader mode.

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This may not seem like a big deal now, but back then, it was a handy addition for power users.

Admittedly, Google has refined the experience, catering it more towards regular users by adding Lockdown and Emergency mode shortcuts.

Still, it's clear that custom ROMs sowed the seed for this idea many years ago.

Navigation without buttons came early

Gesture controls existed long before Android made them mainstream

Gesture navigation is now a staple feature of every Android phone. But what seems obvious now is that its roots can be traced back to custom ROMs.

The Paranoid Android team was famous for its "Pie controls" gesture navigation system. It replaced the traditional navigation bar with swipe-based gesture controls.

Google didn't exactly adopt a similar system. And more than custom ROMs, it took inspiration from the iPhone X's implementation to eventually improve gesture navigation on Android.

But even before that, custom ROMs had already explored gesture-based navigation in their own way.

This is just one of the many ways custom ROMs were ahead of the curve.

Where Android really got its best ideas from

Many of Android's best features did not come from Google. They first showed up in custom ROMs.

Yes, their implementation was rough around the edges and less polished. But that does not take away from the fact that they played a key role in shaping the Android experience we use today.

Google deserves credit for refining the ideas and making them accessible to billions of users worldwide. But the influence of custom ROMs is undeniable.