Xposed Developer Provides Development Update on Nougat

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Ever since Android Nougat was first released last August, we’ve been patiently waiting for a version of the Xposed Framework that works with the latest version of Google’s mobile OS. Updates on this project have been fairly quiet for quite some time, but we now have an update from Senior Recognized Developer rovo89 regarding the status of Xposed for Nougat.

On a GitHub thread, user MartinX3 approached rovo89 saying that he should upload all of his current work for Xposed on Nougat even if there’s still a lot of work to be done, and that rovo89 needs to have better communication with other Xposed users/fans so they know if and when to expect future updates.

The Xposed developer replied to MartinX3 just a few hours later, saying that, “it’s my own decision whether I want to publish my current WIP or not, and you’ll have to respect that decision.”

Rovo89’s two main reasons for not uploading his current work include the fact that he considers himself a perfectionist, and that working on Xposed is a process where he doesn’t exactly know what needs to be done until he finishes something else. People have criticized rovo89 for not allowing others to work on the project with him, but according to this latest update, it seems like Xposed is one of those things that’s better off with only one person actively working on it. Additionally, he hasn’t received much collaboration or insight for Xposed from other developers through the years as there hasn’t been anyone who “digged into it deeply enough”.

Following this, rovo89 also went on to say that if someone contacted him and said they had a general understanding of the ART source code, and had implementation ideas, then he may consider hearing out what they’ve found and giving it a try . However, unless something like this happens and a major breakthrough is made, rovo89 doesn’t see any reason for releasing Xposed for Nougat in its current, unfinished form.

“I’m now at a point where I’m wrapping up some things, reviewing the big amount of changes I’ve done in the last months and clustering them into individual commits to keep the overview. I think I got some really nice technique working to ensure that the apps can still be compiled with all the optimizations enabled.” rovo89

At the end of his response, rovo89 said that, “There are still many tasks though before this can work beyond my test cases, so you’ll have to be patient and stay tuned!”

In other words, the Xposed Framework for Android Nougat is not dead and forgotten. However, don’t hold your breath for an imminent release. We’d certainly love it if the Framework could be published sooner rather than later, but from the sound of what rovo89 is saying, there’s still quite a bit of work that needs to be done before Nougat’s version of Xposed is ready for the limelight. Xposed has always been an extremely complex modification, so we believe everyone should patiently wait for rovo89’s amazing work to be as perfect as he needs it to be.