Your phone, the way
it should have shipped.
petalOS is a calm, quick Android 16 ROM for phones,
built by rab1d.
Run Google your way, or not at all
petalOS doesn't come with Google built in. You decide how your phone handles Google apps and services, and you can change your mind later.
- Google Play. The Play Store and Play services come with petalOS and run as ordinary, sandboxed apps.
- microG. A lighter, open-source alternative for apps that expect Google services.
Choose your setup
- ServicesPlay services
- StorePlay Store
- Installed fromIncluded with petalOS
Switching removes the previous option's updates and app data.
Android Auto, without Google
CATBACK is petalOS's own Android Auto client. It talks to your car's Android Auto head unit directly, so you don't need Google Play services or the Android Auto app running on your phone.
- Wired or wireless. Plug in over USB, or let it join the car's Wi-Fi by itself. It starts on its own when you get in.
- Your apps on the car screen. Car-ready maps and music apps get a proper car layout, and any other app can open in a window.
- Messages, turns and tracks appear as a glass island on the car display, and audio plays through the car.
Link your car once in CATBACK. Setup imports a car identity from an Android Auto APK, which doesn't need to be installed.
Apps sleep when your screen does
After a grace period with the screen off, petalOS restricts the apps you choose. It never wakes the phone to do it, and everything is restored the moment you turn the screen on.
- Optimised runs background jobs less often and keeps network access.
- Deep restricted also blocks network, background execution, location and Bluetooth scanning for the apps you select.
- Push services, including Play services and microG, and battery-exempt apps are always left alone.
- Screen offNothing changes yet
- Grace periodYou set how long
- Idle optimisationSelected apps restricted, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth location scans paused
- Screen onEvery restriction lifted
Notifications from deep-restricted apps may wait until you wake the phone.
Show your screen without showing your messages
Turn on Work mode from Quick Settings and notification content is blacked out on the shade, the lock screen and the Island. Apps and contacts on your allow list stay readable.
- Choose Content blacked or Fully redacted.
- Allow whole apps, or individual contacts.
Call me when you're free x
Try the switch.
A black pill is not an island
Somebody drew a black pill around a camera and called it a breakthrough. Half of Android copied the homework, and plenty of ROMs shipped the same pill under a new name. petalOS has two pieces of glass, one on each side of the punch-hole. They slide in from the edge of the screen, squash when they land and drain away when they're done.
- Two islands, not one. Notifications and calls on the left, music on the right, each with its own queue. A text never pushes your track off the screen.
- Actual glass. It blurs what's behind it and bends the edges like a lens, instead of painting a black rectangle over your wallpaper. Blur, pop-out depth and chromatic aberration are yours to set.
- It does the job. Answer calls, copy one-time codes, watch a download and scrub a track without leaving what you're doing.
No cameras were hidden in the making of this island.
Tap it, pull it down, or flick it off the side.
Also in petalOS
- Depth Studio
-
Your subject, in front of the clock. Pick a portrait and draw loosely around the subject. MobileSAM runs on the phone and finds the edges, and then you drag the clock into place behind it. Use it on the lock screen, the home screen or both.
- Segmentation runs on the phone. Your photo isn't uploaded.
- The photo, clock and subject are three separate layers, so the time stays readable.
-
Photo16
49ClockSubject - Petal assistant
- A voice and text assistant whose language model runs on the phone. Your prompts are never sent to a hosted model.
- Content blocker
- Blocks ad and tracker domains across the whole system, without root, using your own lists.
- PetalTuner
- Bypass charging, charge limits, thermal limits and a distraction-free game mode.
- Petal Music
- A music player with AutoMix crossfades between any tracks, from any source.
Built in the open
- Open sourceThe petalOS apps, device trees and build system are on GitHub.
- Signed buildsEvery official build is signed with petalOS release keys.
- Verifiable downloadsEach zip has a published SHA-256 checksum.
- OTA updatesNew builds arrive through the built-in updater.