Open-Source Android Distributions

Android operating system is an operating system whose core distribution is developed by a consortium, whose main contributor is Google.

As AOSP (Android Open Source Project) is free and open-source (FOSS), there are some other projects that have forked its source code into new distributions that bring their own OS customization and discard some Google Android default features, like Google apps installed as default.

This post lists some FOSS distributions or versions of Android OS.

Motivations to install a non-Google Android distribution on a device

Most non-Apple commercial smartphones comes with Google Android installed by default. Nevertheless, there are alternative AOSP-based OS that could be install.

Some reasons to install a non-Google Android distribution on a device:

You prefer the customized version offered by any of the alternative Android project
The manufacturer has stop maintenance on the Android device, and some alternative provider keeps updating it
You are looking for a fully free and open-source AOSP implementation, unlike proprietary Android
You prefer an OS not managed by Google

List of open source AOSP-based OS

Open source AOSP-based OS featured on this post:

LineageOS
Replicant
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GrapheneOS
CalyxOS

LineageOS

You can read this post about LineageOS.

Replicant

Some hackers and free and open-source (FOSS) supporters, including many represented by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), criticize LineageOS because it uses some proprietary or closed-source software, what is colloquially referred as “bloats”.

Replicant is a full free and open-source (FOSS) OS, obtained by excluding or replacing any closed-source present software in LineageOS.

Between 2023 and at least 2025, it was the only Android OS approved by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), as it can be checked on this external link.

While the Linux kernel has a GPLv2-only license, the user space uses mainly an Apache 2 license.

Official web