Lollipop-based Paranoid Android 5 Alpha 1 is here!

The Paranoid Android team just announced the release of the first alpha version of the Lollipop-based Paranoid Android 5.

It’s been more than three months since the last Paranoid Android release, PA 4.6 Beta 5 Playful Pitaya, but now the wait is finally over for fans of the popular custom ROM project. Paranoid Android 5, based on the Lollipop source code, is now available for download, and it should be good enough for daily use.

The PA team warns however that this is just the beginning of the Lollipop journey, so you should expect some bugs and other flaws, this being an alpha release.

So, what’s new in PA 5? Here’s the change log as per the PA team:

• Update the baseline to AOSP Lollipop 5.0.2
• Improvements to Heads Up, such as an option to disable heads up interruptions completely
• Add Quick Unlock
• Extend the power menu
• Animate the volume panel in a more material manner
• Make it possible to skip songs using volume buttons when the device is locked
• Add CM12 Theme Engine
• Fix various small annoyances from AOSP

As you can see, there are only small feature additions for now, with more substantial changes to come in future releases.

[quote qtext=”“Lollipop has changed almost everything, and we must think with a different mindset in order to create new features that can provide meaningful improvements over stock while following material design.  We’re on it, so don’t worry. Our sauce will have new spices soon enough”” qperson=”PA team” qsource=”” qposition=”center”]

This being a new alpha release based on a major new version of Android, there are some precautions you should take before flashing – read more about it here.

In news that may sadden users of the Galaxy Nexus, the venerable device has been dropped from the group of officially supported Paranoid Android devices, though there’s still hope it will be supported through the legacy project. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone; the CDMA Galaxy Nexus was also left behind by the CyanogenMod community.

Paranoid Android 5 Alpha 1 is available for download from here, for modern Nexus devices, the OnePlus One, the OPPO Find 5, and the OPPO Find 7.