11th April 2023. I’m officially announcing the public general availability (GA) of Fresh 4.5, based on Android 12.0 and One UI 4.1.

Here’s a fun fact for you. Fresh has been internally using codenames based from the Mega Man franchise (known as Rockman in Japan) for its releases. Fresh 3 was codenamed lan and hub, based on the MegaMan Battle Network spin-off. Fresh 4.4 was codenamed axl. This release, Fresh 4.5, is officially codenamed x, in reference to Dr. Light's greatest creation, MegaMan X. I gotta say, this is the best Fresh release yet and the codename is just perfect!

Built on a rock-solid, stable, and well-supported base, Fresh 4.5 brings the latest features and all the more reasons to love your phone again.

What’s new on Fresh 4.5

⚡ Performance You Can Continue to Depend On

Fresh 4.5 comes with the new version of Mint Kernel 12.5, which introduces a range of exciting features. For starters, the new scheduler has been ported straight from the latest Samsung Galaxy devices, which means that you can expect even better performance and efficiency from your phone. The CPU governor has also been updated, allowing for more precise control over the way that your device manages its resources.

If you're interested in learning more about the new Mint Kernel 12.5, be sure to check out this blog post. It goes into detail about all of the changes and improvements with Mint 12.5, and it's definitely worth a read.

The new scheduler and CPU governor are just the beginning; there are many other optimizations and improvements under the hood that make Fresh 4.5 the most stable and reliable release yet.

One of the key changes in Fresh 4.5 is the re-architecture of the builds to remove unnecessary patching. This not only makes Fresh more stable, but it also ensures that updates are delivered more quickly and efficiently.

With Fresh 4.5, you can be confident that your phone will always be running at its best.

🎨 A Refined Color Palette Experience

Fresh 4.4 introduced expanded color palette options straight from One UI 5. This allowed you to further customize and personalize your device. Fresh 4.5 takes this to the next level with more refined theming and upstream changes from Samsung.

You will notice the colored title bars, themed volume panels, as well as themed content boxes in dark mode, which gives a touch of elegance and sophistication to your device. The theme has been refined to deliver a more seamless experience across the UI, with a focus on consistency in color and typography. All of these changes are designed to make your device look and feel more cohesive, as well as to enhance your experience using it.

Furthermore, with Fresh 4.5, you no longer need to wait for app developers to implement themed icons, as Fresh 4.5 brings comprehensive support for themed icons. This feature has been made available to almost 1.2k packages, which includes a majority of popular apps such as Google's, Microsoft's, Meta's, Amazon's, and more. This means that you can enjoy a visually appealing and consistent home screen like never before.

Plus, dark-styled icons have been integrated, giving your home screen a more refined and sophisticated look when in dark mode. This feature brings consistency and elegance to your device's overall appearance, making it even more pleasing to the eye.

The themed icons package is open-source and is based on Evolution X’ work. See the source here.

So whether you're browsing your home screen in broad daylight or during the night, your device will always look stunning with Fresh 4.5.

⌨️ Extract and Scan Text from Anywhere

Fresh 4.5 introduces a new feature that allows users to extract text from anywhere on their device using the keyboard, screenshot, and gallery apps. With this feature, you can easily copy text from an image or document and paste it into a message, email, or note.

The keyboard app now includes a new "extract text" option in the clipboard menu. When you enable this feature, you can simply point your camera at the text you want to extract, and the keyboard will automatically recognize and select the text for you. You can then copy the text to your clipboard and paste it wherever you need it.

In addition to the keyboard app, the screenshot and gallery apps also feature the ability to extract text. When you take a screenshot or open an image in the gallery, you can tap the "extract text" button to select and copy any text in the image. This feature is especially useful for capturing information from receipts, business cards, or other documents.

Overall, the new text extraction feature in Fresh 4.5 makes it easier and more efficient to copy and paste text from anywhere on your device. Whether you're using the keyboard, screenshot, or gallery app, you can now extract text quickly and easily.

🖼️ An All-new Gallery Experience

Fresh 4.5 comes with an improved Samsung Gallery that makes it easier to use than ever before. The app now shows only the albums that are important to you at a glance, making navigation a breeze. With the ability to merge duplicate albums and images, you can now keep your Gallery organized with ease. Backing up your photos to OneDrive is now also easier than ever before. This means that you can keep your precious memories safe and secure, without having to worry about losing them.

Fresh 4.5 now also allows you to access image information at a glance by swiping up from an image in the Gallery app. The new panel now includes device information such as ISO, resolution, and location, among other details. This feature makes it easier for you to quickly see important information about your photos without having to navigate through multiple menus.

In addition to the new and improved Gallery experience, Fresh 4.5 also introduces the Object Clipping feature, ported straight from the Galaxy S23. This feature allows you to easily remove the background from an image and keep the object in focus, making it perfect for creating memes, editing photos, or just having fun.

With Object Clipping, you can now easily cut out objects from a photo and place them in a new background, or simply remove the background altogether. The feature is easy to use and intuitive, allowing you to create professional-grade edits with just a single long tap.

Overall, Fresh 4.5's improved Gallery experience makes it easier than ever before to organize, view, and edit your photos, all while keeping your memories safe and secure.

📄 More Reasons to Love Your Phone Again

These changes might seem small individually, but they add up to make a big difference in the overall user experience.

• You can now turn off auto-brightness for your device’s Always-on Display (AOD) and set a manual brightness.

• You can now search your Gallery for more than one person or subject at the same time. You can even search for people without tagging their names just by tapping their faces.

• Stories that are automatically created in your Gallery have been revamped with an interactive slideshow view. Just tap or swipe to move between pictures and videos in your story.

• A brief summary of the current weather conditions now appears on the weather widget to let you know if it's sunny, cloudy, raining, or snowing.

• More apps now support the Video brightness feature.

• Touch and hold the emoji, sticker, and other buttons to rearrange them.

• Spice up your chats and texts with preset Japanese-style facial expressions created using keyboard symbols. (^.^)

• Updated emoji fonts to support new Unicode-approved emojis.

• New wallpapers from the Galaxy Ax4, One UI 5, as well as the entire set from the stock Galaxy A50 firmware.

• Smart Capture has been updated with more fluid and wonderful transitions, as well as support for the Extract Text feature.

• Improvements to Fresh Performance Kit and Fresh’s performance modes.

• Improvements to Dolby Atmos.

• UI glitches have been fixed, especially along the Color Palette selector.

💛 You Made This Possible

This wouldn’t be a huge release notes post without this. 😂

But seriously, this is a project I only do in my free time, and despite Fresh 5 being cancelled, I'd like to thank everyone who has supported and used Fresh over the years. Your feedback and engagement are what keep me motivated to keep working on this project.

The community has been a big part of what I know and what I can do today, and I'm grateful for all of the contributions, feedback, and support that I've received. I hope that you enjoy Fresh 4.5 as much as I loved creating it.

This isn’t the end for Fresh, there’s still a bunch of stuff on the roadmap and you can expect much more reasons to #LoveYourPhoneAgain in the coming months and updates.

📲 Fresh 4.5 is Now Available

Fresh 4.5.0 is now available for everyone through the official Fresh website and the usual Google Drive and MEGA mirrors.

Fresh 4.5.0 is now generally available as an over-the-air update for all devices running Fresh 3.2 and later. For users still on Fresh 3, you will immediately be updated to Fresh 4.5 as soon as you update, no longer to 4.4. 😉

Don't forget to share your feedback and join the community to help shape the future of Fresh. Thank you for your support and enjoy the new release!

For the best experience, Fresh 4 recommends having a baseband version of CVAx, January 2022 and later.