Android L for Nexus 4 Gets Unofficial Port

Soon after the Android L announcement at Google I/O, the Mountain View-based giant released Android L Developer Preview for Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 users. Now Android L has received an unofficial port to Nexus 4 and the good news is that it’s pretty easy to install, too.

Sykopompos, XDA member and other XDA developers have joined forces and managed to port Android L on the Nexus 4. The port is actually a ROM and you will need to install it using a custom recovery. Anyway, it’s not recommended to install this on your daily driver, because there are a lot of apps that do not work.

In fact, the developer himself warns you that this is a beta release and that you will most likely encounter bugs. Well, at least you have a way of tasting Android L before the official release.

I remind you that Android L is the biggest update Google’s mobile operating system has seen since its release. Among others, Android L arrives with Material Design, Google’s new design philosophy which focuses on 3D effects and animations meant to improve the experience as a whole, battery life improvements, enhancements for the notification bar and lockscreen, ART runtime, and major UI improvements.

As I was mentioning above, you should only install the Android L port on your Nexus 4 for testing purposes, because it’s not suited for a daily driver. In order to install it you will need a rooted Nexus 4, download the port from here, copy the ZIP on your smartphone, boot in recovery, format the system, flash the ZIP, then restart.

If you have no idea what you’re doing, you should take a look at our tutorial that teaches you how to safely install Android L Preview ROM on your Nexus 4.