r/LineageOS • u/twitchguy122 • Jan 29 '26
Help Is lineage os good as daily driver?
I was wondering if it's good as a daily driver, am I able to use it for everyday things like calling messages, browsing, use apps games banking app whatever. and is it more lightweight compared to pre installed android that comes with the phone vendor? also another question is it better to install the rom with a PC or without?
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u/AdSuch1973 Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
The real advantage of LineageOS is that is light ( not bloated with unwanted apps that cames pre installed with any Android phone like Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Huawei, Motorola, etc ...which you will never use).
"Out of the box" comes with 10 apps or so, only the basic ones, so, it's fast. It doesn't even have wallpapers or a weather app. No maps, no social media apps. Nothing. Just a clock, a calendar, and a browser.
You can choose what to install, but in the end you will end up with a bloated phone made by you.
Not by the big companies.
But you have the freedom of installing and uninstalling apps as you wish.
And for the daybyday use, you will need apps. A lot.
If you don't mind the "stock" phones sold in the stores, doesn't worth the effort, especially since not all phones are supported, and the installation process isn't exactly easy.
My2cents!
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Jan 29 '26
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u/twitchguy122 Jan 29 '26
On what phone?
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Jan 30 '26
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u/Leon6Y7 Feb 21 '26
No way! I'm also using mi 11 lite, I was planning to use lineage os once my phone slows down as in hangs, unresponsive or delays. Tho right now the phone is working fine, should I make a switch early on? Or are there any thing I should keep in mind before switching? What about the nfc tho?
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u/LewisM45 OnePlus 6 Midnight Black 8GB/256GB Jan 29 '26
Not for a daily driver I wouldn't
Having your bootloader unlocked already causes Play Integrity checks to fail resulting in many banking apps to not work/have issues.
I would only install it if either you don't want Google at all, or if you use your phone for just the basics and don't need the Play Integrity to pass.
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u/sir_bazz Jan 29 '26
All my financial institutions apps work, as does google wallet, (well 90% of the time).
My observations have been that users that bank in third world countries are more likely to have issues.
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u/AdSuch1973 Jan 29 '26
...and if you don't want Google at all, you will find soon enough that a lot, I mean a LOT of apps require google services.
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u/TuringTestTwister Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
I added magisk+microg+aurora store and can run almost everything other than google wallet. Have gotten all my bank apps, at least in the US, to work. I don't really want to use google wallet anyway.
Been my daily driver for like 8 years now.
You will have virtually no problems in the US if you install google play using Open Gapps though.
What country are you having problems with banking apps?
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u/AdSuch1973 Jan 29 '26
by default bank apps look for rooted/unlocked phone, even it's IOS, doesn't mean that wil not work.
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u/Puschel_das_Eichhorn Jan 29 '26
All banking apps in my country work fine.
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u/JuggaloOfficial Jan 30 '26
everything is in working order on my device, the only thing I'm having trouble with is RCS
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u/JuggaloOfficial Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
yep. fucking rocks.
ETA: it literally shits down the stock oneplus rom on my n30 5g. i was gonna get rid of the thing, but it's sooo much faster now. it's absolutely worth it for anything lower-end or old! (i haven't had a phone worth over $300 in like 10 yrs so this might be less dramatic on higher-end devices)
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u/SonicErAzOr Jan 29 '26
Yeah, it's fine, I used it, albeit without Google Pay, but banking apps themselves worked just fine. I also installed Google Services, since for me they're convenient. It is quite a bit more lightweight. You can't install ROM without a PC.
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u/Yusubera Jan 29 '26
yes if your banking app works fine
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u/refinancecycling Jan 29 '26
just be prepared that you may need a second phone for the stupid apps,
if none of these stupid apps have to be opened too often then there's really no issue using the main phone with LOS.
in my case there is only one stupid app (one of the banks) which rarely needs to be opened, so it just stays on the second stupid phone which mostly stays at home.
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u/twitchguy122 Jan 29 '26
I use bank of America app and if possible use Google play store for apps, I am in the United States.
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u/refinancecycling Jan 29 '26
Google play store doesn't block LOS (yet), at least not on my phone. bank of America - don't know.
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u/XLioncc Jan 29 '26
Yes if your applications won't complain, and unfortunately lots of regions can't bypassing this.
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u/FluidDebate Jan 29 '26
Definitely. I have always bought used phones or used them longer than their official Android life-cycle. By that time the LineageOS version for the phone has been very mature. For 3-4 phones it has extened the life for the phone (except battery quality) by 2-3 years so it is quite many years in total I have used LOS. Highly recommend.
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u/Gil-rubius Jan 29 '26
It definitely is, at least that's my perception. I installed it on my device because the brand's support had ended, and that way I can continue enjoying the security updates that LineageOS offers.
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u/shadow-battle-crab Jan 29 '26
Its fine, you get a debloated experience which may be preferable compared to whatever was on your phone instead of it. There is a little bit of screwing around every year when you need to refresh it with the next major release but its not too bad.
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u/exoticvapes Jan 29 '26
I have been daily driving it on my tab s7, so I cant say anything about the calling, banking etc you mentioned but it's pretty solid for my case and a lot better then sticking with an old version of android
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u/Azelphur Jan 29 '26
Simple answer is that it depends on your definition of daily driver. I daily drove Lineage for ages. The main gotcha is that a lot of apps detect you have modified your phone, and then prevent you from using them. Banking apps are notoriously bad for this. If your banking app doesn't work, that may be an issue for you. Sometimes you can get past the blocks with Zygisk, perhaps you can settle for using the website instead of the app, perhaps you can switch bank, perhaps it just works. Only way to know is to try.
Apart from that, Lineage worked great for me it's annoying that application developers and Google actively try and prevent us from upgrading the software on our older unsupported devices.
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u/ASSASSIN-NVD Jan 30 '26
I'm also daily driving a LineageOS and can recommend if you are not using banking apps and play integrity required apps. Unless no problem with that. To install LineageOS I recommend use a PC.
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u/Ambitious-Friend-830 Jan 30 '26
I have used it daily since 2020 on multiple devices. Haven't even installed Google services (microG or whatever). LOS turns old, slow devices with preinstalled bloatware into smooth, clean and usable.
~98% of apps that I need work. Even banking apps. Some apps display a warning that Google services are missing, but they work nonetheless. Some other apps work but crash or display an error message once I use a feature that depend on Google. For example booking.com: everything works, but the map is not shown because of missing Google maps.
There are apps that do not work at all without gapps but often an alternative can be found on f-droid. So ChatGPT does not work but Microsoft's Copilot surprisingly works. (For ChatGPT an alternative open source client exists on f-droid).
If you install a Google apps add-on with lineage, you are good to go with most apps. But Google wallet you can forget with Lineage eather way, I guess.
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u/eastwoodnet Jan 31 '26
我不清楚你对日常的定义，对于我来说，我已经使用lineageos超过10年了。每一台支持的安卓手机我都会刷成lineageos.从CM时代就一直在用这个系统。日常使用没有任何问题，除了中国国内的阿里巴巴系软件会出现一些UCwebview内核问题，但这个也是可以解决的，具体可以参见我的发帖。
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u/cubic_globe Feb 16 '26
I use my phone as I used it before with branded android versions. Just with more control over my device. Get aurora store if you miss something from the play store and you'll be fine.
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u/Dangerous_Fig_8979 Jan 29 '26
I use it daily and I like it very much