For our August 2019 “Community Choice” Project of the Month, the community elected Evolution X, an AOSP based ROM with Pixel UI, Android Q vibes, customization and more. Project Founder and Lead Developer Joey Huab shared some thoughts about the project’s history, purpose, and direction.
SourceForge (SF): Tell me about the Evolution X project please. What made you start this?
Joey Huab (JH): I really aimed to provide a custom ROM that had the Pixel phone’s software UI (which is different from other Android devices) and this is the result. I tried to make it look different than all the other available custom ROMs.
SF: Has the original vision been achieved?
JH: So far, so good. We’ve managed to keep the thing looking like the Pixels while adding several customization features from other custom ROMs that were requested by our users!
SF: Who can benefit the most from your project?
JH: It’s mostly Android custom ROM users, as we are doing our best to provide support for more Android devices. We currently have support for more than 30+ Android devices and we’re looking to provide to even more.
SF: What core need does Evolution X fulfill?
JH: We mostly satisfy the Android users’ need to have a simple, clean yet also stable Android experience full of customization features.
SF: What’s the best way to get the most out of using Evolution X?
JH: Use every feature we add in and play with the customization features!
SF: What has your project team done to help build and nurture your community?
JH: We’ve put up telegram channels and XDA threads that link to our SourceForge project for download links.
SF: Have you found that more frequent releases helps build up your community of users?
JH: Yes. A lot more users have used Evolution X since our updates are more frequent than other custom ROMs.
SF: What was the first big thing that happened for your project?
JH: Getting recognized by other developers in the Android world. To get recognition from other developers means you have made an impact.
SF: What helped make that happen?
JH: Our marketing and social media efforts have helped spread Evolution X to other devices. Especially once we gained a following, people kept asking for support for their own devices.
SF: How has SourceForge and its tools helped your project reach that success?
JH: SourceForge has assisted us by providing us the proper avenue in order to provide builds and organize them into folders that is on a per-device basis.
SF: What is the next big thing for Evolution X?
JH: We’re currently preparing for our Android Q bring-up as it will be released in a few months.
SF: How long do you think that will take?
JH: Might take 2-4 months depending on the availability of the source code.
SF: Do you have the resources you need to make that happen?
JH: I’m sure we do. We have the proper tools in GitHub, servers and of course, SourceForge to support our builds!
SF: If you had to do it over again, what would you do differently for Evolution X?
JH: I would have probably had added more features in the beginning of our first releases to have made it more likable to more users.
Congratulations Joey. You certainly have made an impact on the android community. I use the Mi A1 and your fixes alone have pulled us out of many dark spots throughout my Android experience. Pixel Experience was my go-to ROM, but when Evolution X popped up and added a ton of customization features on top of that experience I knew I found the perfect combination. Thank you for all your hard work and your time!
cae voert