To see all the new changes for Mint 12.5, please see the blog post here.

Download Mint 12.5.1 for the Samsung Galaxy A50 on GitHub.

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.

Mint is a One UI-first custom kernel designed to bring optimized performance and battery life to Samsung Exynos 9610 devices. Mint Kernel has been the kernel of choice for many users as well as custom ROMs, being the default kernel on The Fresh Project's flagship Fresh.

The new Mint 12.5 Stable release introduces several improvements and new features. These include improved performance and stability, better battery life, and better compatibility with newer Android ROMs.

New on Mint 12.5

A Task Scheduler Straight From the Latest Galaxy

One of the major features of Mint 12.5 Stable is the introduction of a new scheduler based on the scheduler used on the latest Galaxy devices. This new scheduler is designed to improve performance and battery life even further, especially in scenarios where many apps are running at the same time.

Mint 12.5 also introduces Task EXpress (TEX) - a feature that prioritizes the app you have running, while keeping background apps on power-saving cores. With Task EXpress, you can enjoy a smoother and more responsive experience, while also extending your battery life.

TEX works by identifying the app that you are currently using and allocating more resources to it. This means that the app will run faster and more smoothly, without being slowed down by other apps running in the background. At the same time, background apps are moved to power-saving cores, where they consume less power and have minimal impact on performance.

A CPU Governor that Adapts to You

Mint 12.2 users have been testing a special version of the schedutil governor that adapts to how you use your device to scale the CPU. With the release of Mint 12.5, this feature is now made official with the introduction of the energy_adaptive CPU governor, codenamed AIGo. This innovative governor is specifically designed to optimize device performance and battery life based on your specific usage habits.

By forecasting your usage patterns and smoothly scaling the CPU frequency to avoid hitches or spikes, AIGo is able to provide a more responsive and efficient experience. With AIGo, you no longer have to constantly tweak settings to get the most out of your device. Instead, the governor learns your usage habits and automatically optimizes performance and battery life for you.

In addition, AIGo provides a smoother and more seamless experience by learning your device usage patterns. This ensures that hitches or spikes in CPU usage are avoided, resulting in a more consistent and reliable experience. Overall, AIGo offers a more intelligent and user-friendly way to optimize device performance and battery life.

AIGo is based on a Samsung patent from 2019, and has gotten its way to be used on certain Exynos and Qualcomm devices. Read the patent filing here.

More New Things in this Release

• Merge support for Utilization Clamping (UClamp)

• Allow ALPM state to be re-set during doze

• Reduce latency while processing G2D ioctls

• Memory management has been improved

Get Mint Kernel

Mint 12.5 Stable is now available for download from Mint's official GitHub Releases repository and is available with variants for One UI and AOSP-based ROMs.

Building from source

Mint Kernel's full source code is available on GitHub, with instructions to build on the README. Contributions and issue reports are also welcome!

I would like to extend my gratitude to all the testers, and contributors, as well as to those whose more awesome kernels have made something like Mint possible. All source references are available on Mint's README, as usual.

The community has been a large contributor to keeping me going, despite the rocky roads and the challenges over the past three major releases Fresh (and by extension, Mint Kernel) ever had. Your support for the project, despite it being of no monetary value, has continued and continues to inspire me to keep going despite the problems I experience, whether personally or publicly.

Life is telling me to experience new things beyond what I am currently capable of and to take better care of myself. Fresh has become my safe space, a bubble, and a comfort zone that I love staying in. However, it is also preventing me from experiencing what my heart desires and pursuing new opportunities.

With this, it is with my heavy heart to announce that I am officially canceling Fresh 5 development starting today, 28th of March, 2023. Fresh 4 and Mint Kernel will remain supported throughout the year and update servers and source code will NOT be discontinued as a result of this cancellation. As long as my providers, CloudFlare, GitLab, and GitHub, stay online and alive, you will continue receiving updates, and that wouldn’t change.

In addition, I am currently in the process of open-sourcing essential components used in Fresh 5. By doing so, other developers will have access to the codebase and will be able to build upon the work done on The Fresh Project. I will still contribute from time-to-time, and will provide help when I can, but I will no longer work in full capacity on Fresh.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who has supported Fresh Project, and to everyone who has contributed to the project's growth and development. Again, Fresh has become my habit for the past three years, but it’s also time for me to pursue new opportunities and to better take care of myself.

But with Fresh being Fresh, of course I’m not going anywhere without a bang. 😂

Something Remains Beyond the Horizon

Fresh 4.5 is shaping up to be a huge release, and might be the most stable Fresh release to date. Mint Kernel is also getting a massive upgrade, which will bring a lot of improvements, bug fixes, and new features to further improve your Galaxy experience.

There are more reasons for you to love your phone with Fresh 4.5, with a host of new features coming into Fresh 4 that were previously only available on One UI 5. These features include Text Extraction on the keyboard and Gallery apps, which will make it easier for you to find the information you need by scanning text and extracting it directly from images. Additionally, you can look forward to seeing expanded photo details and searching within Samsung Gallery, which is only seen so far on devices with One UI 5.1 (which is, not very many of them).

I’m most excited about this, Fresh 4.5 is also about to get Object Clipping, which is, so far, only officially available on the Galaxy S23. This feature allows users to easily remove the background from an image and isolate the object you want to keep, and even save it on your storage for future use. This can be especially useful for creating clip-arts or collages, as well as for removing unwanted elements from photos.

Fresh 4.5 has also been re-architectured with a full overhaul on the build process, removing unnecessary cruft and patching, making the experience even more stable. Plus, performance and memory management improvements are aboard the new release.

I have more plans for the future, including improved security against malicious USB On-The-Go peripherals and the ability to disable RAM Plus. Feedback remains important to me, and I’m excited to know which features you are excited about in this release, and which would you also want to see in an update.

Mint Kernel 12.5 is an upcoming release that promises to be a major step forward in terms of performance and stability. In addition to porting the kernel task scheduler directly from the Samsung Galaxy A53, a device that is three generations ahead of the Galaxy A50(!), Mint is introducing a cutting-edge CPU governor called AIGo. This governor uses adaptive learning to forecast CPU load and provide performance when needed, while also optimizing battery life when the device is not in use.

But that's not all. Mint has also merged several modern improvements to the Linux kernel, including Utilization Clamp (UClamp) support. This feature will allow users to set constraints on CPU utilization, which can be extremely useful for power users who want to optimize their system's performance. Furthermore, Mint has made massive stability improvements to drivers, which should lead to a much smoother experience overall.

All of this, including the new Exynos Mobile Scheduler, as with the Fresh mantra, are all configurable to your heart’s content.

A release candidate for Mint Kernel 12.5 is now available starting today. Download it by clicking here.

Overall, Fresh 4.5 and Mint Kernel 12.5 are shaping up to be a release that's packed with exciting new features and improvements. Whether you're a power user or just someone who wants the best possible experience from their device, this release is definitely something that will make you love your phone even more.

Fresh 4.5 and Mint 12.5 will be released 11th April, 2023. Save the date.

Thank You

I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has been a part of this journey with me. Your support, encouragement, and feedback have been very invaluable to the development of Fresh and Mint Kernel. From your feedback, to the beta testers, to the people that made Fresh even more accessible by translating it to their native language, to the moderators that kept the community safe and healthy, to the developers that contributed to the project', to the people that shared Fresh with their friends and family, and to the countless others that made The Fresh Project what it is today, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

I am excited to see the open-source community build upon the codebase and create new and innovative features for Fresh. It is important to me that Fresh remains accessible to all who want to use it, and I believe that open-sourcing essential components will help achieve this goal. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for The Fresh Project and cannot wait to see what you can do beyond what I was able to do with Fresh.

The Fresh Project will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you, and I hope to share more exciting things with you all in the future.

Here's to the future, and whatever's to come for Fresh, Mint Kernel, and the open-source Galaxy A50 community. 🥂

Today also marks Fresh's second birthday. Started in December 2020 as an idea for an "addon" to a known custom ROM for the Galaxy A50, Fresh has grown into its own; bringing not just features from other Samsung devices, but also bringing even more experiences from newer and flagship ones.

Born out of the want to have Edge Screen on a device that supposedly wouldn't have it until One UI 3, Fresh has even brought more camera features and even brought RAM Plus a week after it was introduced to the public.

For the past three years, Fresh has also grown into an awesome community of users, developers, and contributors doing even more amazing things on Fresh and helping together to make it accessible, stable, and better. The community has been a vital part of Fresh such that any of this would never be possible.

To this, thank you. There might only be 2 people working on Fresh at most but you all have made it even bigger. Cheers for the two years and more to come!

Enough of the sentiments, Fresh 4 is here and it's more awesome than ever. From an intuitive install wizard to more flagship features. No need to ask "how to make your phone x", Fresh 4 has got what it takes to love your phone, again.

What's new on Fresh 4

📲 An actually-intuitive Install Wizard

Fresh 4 brings an even better way to customize your installation. Gone are the bulky add-ons you have to download after setting up your device. Fresh 4 comes with Fresh Install Wizard, a next-generation installation assistant that takes you into installing Fresh with ease.

Designed to be as little of a hassle as possible, Fresh Install Wizard only asks you when you need to, everything else is automated and smooth sailing. Just install Fresh, pick the apps you want to be installed, have a cup of coffee, and you're good to go!

And you no longer need to pick between what an a50dd or an a50xx package. One Fresh ZIP now covers both NFC and non-NFC devices and enables features automagically so there's one less problem to think about when installing Fresh.

Fresh Install Wizard is based on amarullz' AROMA Installer and is open-source. See the source code and current development here.

💫 One UI 4 and Android 12 all around

Fresh 4 brings One UI 4.1 to your device along with Android 12, delivering, in Samsung's own words an "elevated mobile experience" with more customization options and more privacy to boot.

One UI 4 brings a customized mobile experience with Color Palette, enabling you to easily theme your phone with colors based on your home or lock screen wallpaper. If you have used Fresh 3.4 Preview, you might remember this, but this is further expanded on Fresh 4 with One UI 5's expanded color features ported over to Android 12.

You won't need to be limited to just four color options, you have up to 16 customized colors and 8 standard palettes, plus support for theming select icons on your home screen. Plus with Smart Widgets, stack your most used widgets on your home screen to make it more organized.

One UI 4 also brings Android 12's latest security and privacy features. With Camera and Microphone toggles, you no longer need to worry about apps snooping with them. With a simple toggle, turn off access to your camera and microphone instantly. Plus with a redesigned Privacy Dashboard, easily see which apps and how frequently they access your data.

See what's new in One UI 4 with this video below from Samsung:

⚡Performance you can depend on

Released just last week, Mint 12.2 brings an enormous amount of performance improvements from a revamped scheduler to a smarter CPU governor that improves performance without sacrificing battery life. See what's new on Mint 12.2 here.

Fresh 4 brings even more than just a major Mint Kernel release. Fresh 4 brings 'Performance Modes' accessible from Zest and quick settings, allowing you to optimize performance when and where you need it. With options for gaming and multitasking, the synergy between Fresh and Mint optimizes your device to enable you to do more awesome things.

Fresh 4 also brings up to 50% lower UI latency, making the One UI experience much smoother and enjoyable. Fresh 4 also brings a FUSE Passthrough that improves write speeds between your device and internal and external storage, enhanced RAM Plus, now with the ability to pick how much storage is dedicated for it, as well as Incremental Storage support, making app installations from Google Play even faster.

Fresh is no longer just a custom firmware that brings features to the table, it is now a custom firmware with the performance you can depend on.

🌟 Customization features you'll love

Of course, Fresh isn't resting on its laurels when it comes to customization. Fresh 4 brings even more customization to One UI. Fresh 4 brings more icon options to its data connection and Wi-Fi icon styles, including styles from more carriers and the Wi-Fi 6 and 6e icons so you can flaunt that nEw tEcHnOlOgY! 😂

Fresh 4 also brings Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) icon customization as well as enabling a hidden location indicator that matches the new dots for the camera and microphone. This release also brings improved Screen Resolution and Video Brightness settings.

And you're gonna love this, Fresh 4 also brings support for customizing the fingerprint animation on your lock screen! Match your lock screen with your style or your personality with over 13 animations to choose from, with more to come very soon!

Since Fresh 3, Zest has been the home for customization features you only have seen on AOSP-based ROMs before. With a bigger and better Zest on Fresh 4, you no longer need to compromise between vital features and customization to make your phone more awesome.

📸 A camera that takes you beyond what's possible

The camera has been Fresh's bread and butter since the very beginning, with Fresh 1.1 alone bringing Single Take and Pro Video support and Fresh 3 bringing Fun mode as well as making Photo Remastering more accessible to more users. Fresh 4 brings a significant amount of improvements and brings even more opportunities to capture your best memories in style.

Fresh 4 further expands Single Take with more options on what to take during up to 15 seconds worth of video. Starting Fresh 4, you can now take Portraits, Filtered pictures, and Time-lapse clips, with music to boot.

Photo Remastering has also received improvements in its algorithm. ArcSoft(R) HDR and "image enhancement" technology have also received improvements, bringing a better dynamic range to photos taken using the Camera app.

Plus, Object Eraser with Shadow and Reflection Removal is making its arrival with Fresh 4! Easily remove unwanted objects from your images. Learn more about Object Eraser here.

Fresh 4 brings even more capabilities to your camera. From an updated Single Take to more editing features, Fresh enables your device to go beyond what was thought to be possible.

💚 A phone that takes care of you

With updated Bixby Routines that allow for far more automation features, Fresh 4 also brings an updated Digital Wellbeing with Volume Monitor. Keep your ears safe by reminding you when you have been listening at loud volumes for too long.

Fresh isn't all just about performance and customization, it's also about making your device better for your lifestyle.

Get Fresh 4 today

Fresh 4.4 is now available for everyone through the official Fresh website. It is also available as an over-the-air software update for Fresh 3.2.3 and 4 Early Access users.

Fresh 4 now comes with the SkyHawk Recovery Project (SHRP) by default.

For the best experience, Fresh 4 recommends having a baseband version of CVAx, January 2022 and later*. Feature availability depends on your current territory and some functionality might not be available to comply with local regulations.*

Something's coming over the horizon

Fresh 4 might be late to the party, but something's coming over the horizon as early as now. See the development on Fresh's official GitHub project.

Fresh 5 is coming in 2023. Stay tuned. 😉

Mint is a One UI-first custom kernel designed to bring optimized performance and battery life to Samsung Exynos 9610 devices. Mint Kernel has been the kernel of choice for many users as well as custom ROMs, being the default kernel on The Fresh Project's flagship Fresh.

Mint 12 brings a significant amount of optimizations as well as support for more modern versions of Android.

New in this release

• Added support for Android 12 and 13-based custom ROMs.

• A completely revamped Exynos Mobile Scheduler (EMS) optimized for low-latency tasks.

• A smarter CPU governor with a more fully-featured boosting algorithm from the Galaxy S10 and machine learning-like techniques from the Galaxy S20.

• Upstream improvements to the ARM64 architecture, kernel scheduler, and memory management.

• Upstream changes from Samsung OSRC for the Exynos 9610 platform.

• Upstream security patches from the Linux Kernel, Samsung, and Google. This includes patches for the dirty pipe vulnerability.

• Updated Magisk to v25.2.

• Updated SensorHub drivers to the latest revision to fix sensors on devices running more recent One UI ROMs or vendors. Legacy support for older vendors are available for Android 11 kernels.

• Updated the S.LSI Wi-Fi and BT driver (WLBT) for stability and to better support Android 12-based vendors.

• Added support for the Incremental File System that aims to improve the app installation experience for custom ROM users. This requires implementation on the custom ROM side, with Fresh 4 being the first for the Galaxy A50 to do so.

Changes specific to Android 12+ kernels

• Updates to the RAM Plus kernel feature that adds per-process swapping on One UI 4+ ROMs.

• Updated the Mali GPU driver to r32p1.

• Added the 'adaptive' GPU power policy from the Google Pixel 6.

• Added support for FUSE Passthrough. Improves file system performance with the internal storage and SD cards. This requires implementation on the custom ROM side, with Fresh 4 being the first for the Galaxy A50 to do so.

Get Mint Kernel

Mint 12 Stable is now available for download from Mint's official GitHub Releases repository and is available with variants for One UI and AOSP-based ROMs.

Building from source

Mint Kernel's full source code is available on GitHub, with instructions to build on the README. Contributions and issue reports are also welcome!

I would like to extend my gratitude to all the testers, and contributors, as well as to those whose more awesome kernels have made something like Mint possible. All source references are available on Mint's README, as usual.

And one more thing

Fun fact: Mint Kernel releases are typically followed by major Fresh releases. Mint 11.3 was released alongside Fresh 3.2.3, Mint 11.6 with Fresh 3.4 Preview...

...Fresh 4 is officially coming 9th December, 2022. Love your phone again with more customization options, better performance, and much more.

Flagship All Around

Fresh 3.1 brought apps and features from flagship and the latest Samsung devices, this time I'm bringing the whole package wholesale.

Fresh 3.2 is the very first Fresh release to be based upon a flagship Samsung Galaxy device, namely the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition; hence these new releases coined "Fresh Edition" builds. This brings the stuff that you've only dreamt before with your Galaxy A device, including Samsung DeX[1] and live blur[1] functionality.

This base change also brings more rich camera and media experiences. Say goodbye to bland Single Take shots as full ST 2.0 support is here with collage, portrait, and even full support for video highlights! Motion Photos is here as well, take shots even before you press the shutter button. My Filter has been improved as well with better filter generation. Plus, reminisce memories in better and clearer quality with Photo Remastering options on the Gallery!

A Bigger Hub

Fresh Hub was introduced with Fresh 3 as a way to make updating your device easier. Starting Fresh 3.2, the Hub is getting more features to make your phone yours.

Fresh 3.2 brings Zest, your one-stop shop for all Fresh-specific options, tweaks, and more! Make your phone yours with Color-matching Themes; and yes, it's inspired by Android 12's Monet (and is released before Android 12 xD). Match your device theme with your current home or lock screen wallpaper and make your phone truly yours.

This release also brings icon customization options for the Wi-Fi and data connection icons, with more comprehensive options coming very soon.

Dual Messenger Missing

A change in how "special users" are managed on One UI 3 are causing bootloops on devices with lock screen security enabled and set, and Dual Messenger enabled. With this, Dual Messenger has been temporarily removed from main Fresh starting 3.2.

This is an issue introduced by Samsung in Android 11 and affects all ROMs and devices running One UI 3. I'll put support back once I find a workaround or an alternative.

For the meantime, you can use alternatives found on the Play Store. An addon is also available on Fresh Hub that re-adds support, but you should not use lock screen security or bootloop issues will occur.

Fresher Phone

Fresh 3.2 brings the July 2021 security patches, along with Fresh Core based on 4.14.212. This ensures better security from Samsung, Google, and the Linux community.

Plus, optimizations on the kernel and system-level makes Fresh 3.2 behave and perform exactly (and even better) than 3.1, despite the bigger base.

This release also brings full support for Android Pony EXpress (APEX) modules introduced by Google in Android 10. This allows Google Play to update vital Android components, including the Android Runtime (ART), timezone data, and more without updating the whole ROM.

A Bigger Family

Fresh 3.2 will be the first release to support U.S. variants of the Samsung Galaxy A50, to be released very soon. Plus, support for the Samsung Galaxy A50s is coming Q3-Q4 2021, with beta registrations to start soon. Stay tuned!

Not only Fresh family of devices is getting larger, the community Fresh has brought has become larger since the ROM's first release last December. All of you have made this possible, from beta testing to feature requests. Not only Fresh has broke the boundaries of what your device can do, the community has broke the boundaries of what is possible with Fresh.

To that I say, thank you. I just recently celebrated my birthday, and to be honest this is the best gift I have ever received. :>

Full Changelog

**Fresh 3.2 Update with One UI 3.1**
 - The security of your device has been improved with July 2021 security patches.
 - Better security with full support for Google System Security Updates
 - Screen resolution changing has been improved.
 - Easily access Quick Share from settings
 - Easy access to Nearby Share and other sharing options when you share photos, videos, and more.
 - More full-featured Gallery search
 - Improvements to the camera
 - Fixes for Dolby Atmos
 - Full VoLTE support for Dito Telecommunity (PH)

 - Dual Messenger is now optional due to changes that causes issues on users with lock screen security. See the full changelog for more information.
 - Some apps will need to be updated separately after the update.
 - Fresh Core addon has been pulled from the store. A new way to update the kernel will be available soon.
 - Samsung DeX touchpad support depends on the kernel installed. Fresh Core currently supports it, with more kernels supporting the feature in the near future.

Download Fresh 3.2

Fresh 3.2 is now available for everyone on the XDA Forum and the Fresh website.

Addons are available on Fresh Hub as well as on the Fresh website.

[1] Installed separately as addons

Important Developer Information

Fresh 3.2 will now enable users to use Samsung DeX (wireless, on PC), Samsung's implementation of Desktop Mode for Android. From testing, it has been shown that its touchpad functionality is done at the kernel level, and requires kernel support for users to be able to use DeX Touchpad.

If you are a kernel developer, it is advised to merge the following patches for touchpad functionality to work:

Patch 1

Patch 2

Patch 3

Patch 4

Patches are adapted from the Galaxy Z Fold kernel, which includes display drivers (albeit newer, and with DeX support) also used on the A50. Thank you.

Here is a veeeeeeeerrrry quick rundown of all the new stuff on the One UI 3.1-based Fresh 3.

Awesome is for Everyone

Just because the Galaxy A50 is two years old doesn't mean that you don't deserve all the new features. Aside from the features you have loved from Fresh 1, Fresh 3 includes more features from the latest Galaxy devices!

Fresh includes Fun Mode from the Galaxy A52, which allows you to take more fun selfies with filters updated every once in a while[1]. Fresh 3 also includes more camera features, including Hyperlapse on the front camera, and recording in 1080p120 and 1080p24 in Pro Video Mode; courtesy of Ahmed from the Fresh Community (thanks man!). Fresh 3 also includes ArcSoft's High Resolution and Image Enhancement improvements from the Galaxy S21 and the A52.

Fresh 3 will now also allow you to experience the Alt Z Life, wherever you are. Alt Z Life is enabled for all regions, with Content Suggestions so you can keep the most secret stuff separately, and access it by a simple double-click of the power button. Fresh 3 also includes Useful Cards on the messaging app. Never miss what's most important, it does all the hard work for you in the background and presents you with useful information at the right time. It also runs on-device, so there is no need for an internet connection.

Fresh 3 also comes with a very easy-to-use resolution changer very similar to what you see on flagships. Easily switch between 1080p all the way to 540p with just a few taps!

Won from the Fresh Community poll, Fresh 3 includes the colorful and fun wallpapers from the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition, including the video wallpapers! Fresh 3 also includes all the flagship video backgrounds for the call screen as well as all the ringtone themes from the latest Galaxy devices.

To top it all off, Fresh 3 includes the latest boot logo from the latest Galaxy S and A devices of this year. So your device feels Fresher and newer than what it is.

You deserve it, your phone deserves it.

Powerful Squeeze

Fresh is faster and more powerful thanks to Fresh Core, a new, in-house kernel designed to power your device through your day. Fresh Core is balanced for performance and battery life, and allows you to do the things you love for much, much longer, without giving up great performance.

Optimized for One UI 3, Fresh Core includes features anyone who wants to tinker their device to squeeeeeeze more performance into their device will be glad to have; including:

• Additional I/O schedulers
• DriveDroid support
• Wireguard support; and
• NTFS storage support

Plus, Fresh Core includes upstream kernel improvements from Google and Samsung from the Galaxy A50s, adding more performance to your device.

Fresh Core is currently upstreamed to 4.14.155, with later versions for better performance, battery life, and security, to be available later down the line.

Fresh 3 is not just fresher, it's faster and more powerful[2].

Easier to Freshen Up

Fresh 3 is not just about being fresher, it's about keeping it fresh much easier than before. Developed in collaboration with Yanndroid, Fresh Hub is here to make updating your device as easy as stock and access the community much easier!

With a user experience very similar to One UI, Fresh Hub is familiar, and friendly to use one handed. Updating is also a cinch, just check, update, and go! Accessing addons is now easier than ever as well! Addons are now available for download, install, and even uninstall from within Fresh Hub[3]. Fresh Hub is also update-able separately from the ROM!

Fresh Hub will get more features very soon, including Spectrum support so stay tuned!

Changes to Addons

Fresh 3 makes more improvements to the debloating process. Aside from the removed apps from Fresh 1.3, Fresh 3 now also excludes these apps, now in their separate addons:

• Smart View (now on Samsung Live)
• Dual Messenger (now on My Galaxy)
• Bixby Routines (now on Bixby Smart)

My Galaxy has been broken down as well and is now simply a singular addon. Addons for Wi-Fi Direct (AllShare, Wi-Fi Direct sharing, and Quick Share) are now in a separate "Samsung Live" module, Bixby Reminders and Routines are in a separate "Bixby Smart" addon, Your Phone and "Call and text on other devices" are now in "Seamless".

More addons, as well as third-party addons, will be available very soon!

A Bigger Community

The Galaxy A50 will not be alone anymore, Fresh will also come to the Galaxy A50s and M30s later this year, with more support to come soon.

The community has also gotten larger ever since the first 1.2 release of Fresh just over three months ago. From your bug reports, feature suggestions, and even contributions in making Fresh Hub more accessible to everyone by translating the app, you all have made Fresh better.

I want to thank everyone in the community for making Fresh what it is today. You are the pilots in making Fresh 3 an amazing thing to work on, and a release that exceeded my expectations. You all have helped making Fresh 3 the biggest release I have ever done in my development life. And to that I say, thank you.

Get Fresh 3 Today!

And that's just a quick rundown! You'll absolutely going to love Fresh 3 with its bounty of new features and improvements.

After installing, Reboot to System! Magisk 22.1 is now included with the system kernel, no more need to boot to recovery to get root!

Fresh 3 is now available from the Fresh official website and official SourceForge repository. Google Drive and MEGA links are available on the Fresh forum.

Addons are available on Fresh Hub, SourceForge, and the official MEGA mirror.

[1] Provided by Snap Inc. for Samsung
[2] Compared to Fresh 1
[3] Over-the-air update APIs are provided by Netlify with downloads from SourceForge

This release brings less features than 1.2 did, but improves upon the fundamentals you have expected from FreshROMs, a great, no-frills Samsung Experience. This release also brings "quality-of-life" improvements that you will enjoy.

This release... may also the last. More on that later.

Making Things Simpler

For simpler understanding of versions, I'm (finally) dropping "11.5" from the main versions found on XDA and download pages. This release is officially "version 1.3", and future releases will be following the same scheme.

But don't be confused that this is a downgrade! This release brings a lot of things everyone will love.

Fun fact! "11.5" formerly meant the Samsung Experience version the FreshROM release came with. Samsung still continues such versioning internally despite the UX being One UI 2.5. The app versions reflect that as well, you can see "11.x" on apps for One UI 2, and "12.x" on apps for One UI 3.

The Net is Punctured! (For Now)

You heard it right, the net is punctured! Starting early January this year, Google has decided to force SafetyNet's "hardware attestation" to all devices with "hardware security modules" and the Galaxy A50 is one of them.

With the unwavering work of kdrag0n, as well as the ProtonAOSP project, we are able to bypass hardware attestation through the framework. While the standard module found on Magisk causes One UI to crash (because Knox), FreshROMs implemented the workaround through the framework.

Starting 1.3, FreshROMs will now pass SafetyNet without needing any Magisk modules, with a few catches:

• Several device variants, notably the SM-A505FM forces a "device codename", either through the bootloader or the EFS, that causes SafetyNet to fail on ctsProfile. A workaround is available on the project's official Telegram group.
• MagiskHide should be enabled and working fully for SafetyNet to pass completely.

Also note that while this workaround works right now, Google can change everything in one night, rendering this useless. You can also see the proof-of-concept of this on XDA here.

I want to thank kdrag0n, as well as the ProtonAOSP project contributors in discovering this workaround. You can see (and implement) their patches here or here.

Meet a "Pro"-er(?) You

With the help of FreshROMs Community members, notably @a7hmE1 from the official Telegram group, full Pro modes for both photo and video is now available on FreshROMs! You can now flexibly set aperture sizes, exposure levels, as well as smoothen out zoom!

FreshROMs 1.3 also brings improvements to Single Take. You can now use palm capture to start a Single Take shot.

This release also fixes Scene optimizer, and enables Smart Scan. So you can now scan documents without needing a third-party app!

A Fresher Fresh

In order to ensure stability for all variants, the non-NFC and NFC-enabled variants will now use separate vendors starting FreshROMs 1.3. All variants use the latest BUA1/BUAA vendors from Samsung. VoLTE and RCS services now also use the Galaxy A50's stock to ensure full stability. This release also brings more battery and performance improvements from FreshROMs 1.2, including force Dozing select Google and Samsung services.

The Feedback app has been updated as well with the very awesome work by Yanndroid! The app is now One UI-styled, and even follows dark mode.

This release also brings improvements to the table. "LTE only" network mode is now available for all users. Please note that this may cause inability to send and/or receive SMS or calls, especially if your carrier does not support Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE). Support for wallet flip covers have been re-added from Stock as well.

App Lock is now also available for all OMCs starting 1.3! You can now lock select applications and unlock them using a PIN, pattern, or password, and your fingerprint.

Dual Messenger now also supports more popular apps, including popular alternative clients for Telegram, Facebook (and Messenger), and Twitter! It is now more useful for cloning the most important apps you need.

More apps have been debloated from the system to improve performance as well. Here are the newly-debloated apps from Core:

• Samsung Daily/Free (moved to My Galaxy and up addon)
• Samsung Customization Service (moved to My Galaxy+ addon)
• Google Search app (moved to Google-ful addon)
• Quick Share and Wi-Fi Direct sharing (moved to a new addon)
• Samsung Game Tools/Home/Optimization (moved to a new addon)

The End of Line

Before I close this out, I want to personally thank everyone. The users, contributors, testers, everyone. From its beginnings as a rushed release just in time for Christmas, to the literally daily testing for all beta testers in the community. I really want to say "thank you". Thank you for all of your support to this project.

But this is the end, the end of the line. The final cut. It's very hard for me to announce this but, this is the end... .

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...because I'm finally moving over to Android 11-based builds! That's right, FreshROMs 3, based on One UI 3, will be coming soon. With more features, and more supported devices, FreshROMs 3.0 will be, quite a big release.

Stay tuned for news, here on FreshROMs official SourceForge page, to FreshROMs official Telegram channel here! You don't want to miss this! ;)

Download Fresh 1.3

Download FreshROMs 1.3, as well as its addons through the XDA Forum, as well as official SourceForge and MEGA Links below!

SourceForge

NFC variants | Non-NFC variants

Download Addons

MEGA

NFC variants | Non-NFC variants

Download Addons

Currently Known Issues:

• Select NFC-enabled variants have weird battery drain due to a wakelock caused by NFC. Keeping NFC turned on fixes this issue. A future release will fix this once-and-for-all.

One UI 2.0 finally came to Galaxy A50 devices, and I can finally experience it for myself. To be honest, it gave back the feelings of being excited about a major upgrade.

Welcome to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; where I review technology and software from a commoner's standpoint. In this first entry in the series, we will explore One UI 2.0 from a mid-range device, the Samsung Galaxy A50.

The Good

Let's start with the great stuff. The One UI 2 update brings the new features that came with Android 10. That includes support for screen recorders, (rather lacking) better permissions system, and one of my favorites, gesture navigation.

I was never an iOS ex-pat, but I just loved gestures. The new one isn't exactly easy to learn, especially if you're new to this. But if you use your phone very frequently (which is the case these times), it's quite fast to adapt to.

This new gesture system allows you to see more content since buttons don't block the bottom of the screen anymore. Several apps struggle to support it, especially on a curved screen like the A50; more on that later.

Aside from the goodies Google brought to the table, Samsung has brought a number as well. In addition to the new features they're proud of such as the improved design and wallpaper adaptability on the lock screen, they have brought several new features as well.

I'm liking the consistency they're going for, most of which have been ironed out on One UI 2. Home screen folders now follow the same philosophy as other stock apps, which makes it better for one-handed use.

Also, the native screen recorder is a very welcome addition. As well as the refined iconography and color schemes.

Customization-wise, updates to Samsung's Good Lock modules are great, most of which only support Android 10 as of writing. The "Sero" volume panel theme in SoundAssistant is a very welcome addition and allows better reachability on the volume panel.

Issues from One UI 1.1 have been fixed as well; screenshots from the lock screen aren't dim anymore when you have the fingerprint scanner enabled, you can now add a secondary face to the face recognition feature, and performance is better than before.

The Bad

Let's go to the disappointing stuff. Gestures are a mess on a lot of apps at this point. Navigation bars are entirely small, and tapping items on the farther left or right can accidentally trigger Google Assistant.

Google never released proper design guidelines for this new thing and left app developers on their own to figure it out.

And let's not forget Samsung's habit of re-inventing the wheel literally every year. SamsungDaily just isn't as great as Bixby Home was. What made Bixby Home great is the ability to check e-mails, alarms, reminders, and notes, control your music, and check the content you might be interested in, all in one screen. With SamsungDaily, all except the last are gone. What's worse, services are very scarce in many countries, you're stuck with TikTok too. It sucks.

The Ugly

Personal pet peeves next.

Bixby, period. Samsung just doesn't exert enough effort while Google Assistant is getting better every Google I/O. Services are lacking, you're still restricted to Samsung's own apps, and you can't even disable it anymore on One UI 2. It's promising, but the execution is still garbage.

QuickShare is more gimmicky than useful since it's far from cross-compatible. But to be fair, there isn't known standard yet to do this and there are very few Samsung devices that support it. The Galaxy A50 doesn't even have it installed by default, you'd have to download and install it yourself.

Samsung Themes still isn't great. I'm not sure how this "secret community" works behind the scenes, but almost all themes don't support Dark Mode yet, any good one will cost you money, and have I mentioned that even wallpapers you can easily find on Reddit are paid?

Battery life is abysmal at this point. But in fairness, I've reset after upgrading and it's getting better as of this writing. Night mode in the camera is spotty as well, hoping Samsung fixes that in the next update.

The Thing That Made Me Excited... Again

I still clearly remember the feeling of excitement when I installed CyanogenMod 12.1 (yes, CyanogenMod!) on an Android device. That preparation when you back up almost everything, and the anticipation when the install and optimization happens.

The Android 10, One UI 2.0 update, has made me experience that exact same feeling again. Opinion regarding One UI 2 is divided across the community, but as I've said before; as long as you find most features useful, it's not bloated. I find most features useful, and I'm a sucker for colorful and eye-candy UIs, so One UI 2 is a very welcoming change from me.

But, how will Google Lens fare with... Fan arts? Will it be able to detect who's who? Let's start.

Sonic the Hedgehog

With Google Lens being a preview on my test device, finicky results are truly expected. And since I'm a fan of it, why not try this up? And results are... quite satisfactory.

But they're official character models! But what about, fan arts?

Albeit with one funny result, Lens would usually return with a Couldn't recognize this image yet on most fan arts.

But these ones, amazed me.

Google Lens was able to link these arts to the game from which they're based from. Even to the point of providing more information when needed.

But these ones, left me wondering.

How does Google define something?

One (and many of them) matched "Sonic". Yet, they return a different result, a fast-food chain of the same name it is.

Progress is Great

Well, as one progresses, there would be steep roads along the way. I hope that these issues with Google Lens, a feature with a lot of potential, would be rectified.

Google Lens has been available to the public since mid-2019 and has been improving since it was released. I will do another run of this, using the proper Google Lens, very soon.

Photo Credits:

• Aimf0324@DeviantArt
• Tsukikaze@Pixiv
• ELM Go-Shogawara@Deviantart
• Copyright information:
• Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Silver the Hedgehog, Mephiles the Dark, Sonic and the Black Night, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Forces is a trademark/copyright of SEGA Games Co., Ltd. in the U.S. and other territories.
• Pokèmon, Ash Ketchum, Pokèmon Trainer, and Pokèmon: The Series is a trademark/copyright of The Pokèmon Company International and/or Game Freak Co., Ltd. in the U.S. and other territories.
• Mega Man, Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, and Zero is a trademark/copyright of Capcom Co., Ltd. in the U.S. and other territories.
• Kid Icarus, Paleutena, and Pit is a trademark/copyright of Nintendo Co., Ltd. in the U.S. and other territories
• BoBoiBoy is a trademark of Monsta Animation in Malaysia and other territories.