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It’s an idea that’s been floating around the Android community for quite sometime. The dream of having both, a full featured manufacturer UI running on your device, along with a stripped down stock Android experience, and being able to transition between the two on the fly. Well, it looks like the dream is about to become a reality thanks to Android developer Paul O’brien.
In an effort to let HTC One users have their cake and eat it too, O’brien has come up with MoDaCo.Switch, a handy new feature that can switch between the latest version of Sense 5 (Android 4.2.2), and the stock version of Android found on the HTC One Google Play edition. If that sounds a lot like flashing between 2 different ROMs — this is different.
This method actually shares all the apps and data between the 2 ROMs, allowing uses to switch between the 2 ROMs seamlessly. To achieve something like this right now you’d have to flash a ROM backup your apps n’ data, flash the new ROM, restore said apps/data. — repeating the process over again, every single time you’d like to switch. Yeah, no thanks.
MoDaCo’s implementation successfully gives HTC One users the best of both worlds, with very little downtime. Hannah Montana would be proud. Public beta is getting set to launch in the coming days and we’ll keep our eyes peeled. Of course, root users only need apply. Video demo of SWITCH can be found below.
This is a great idea and a step in the right direction for folks with all devices. I’m hoping to get something like this on any device in the future.
I had to ask my 14 year old daughter why Hannah Montana would be proud. Does that make me old or you very young?
So what was the answer? Why would she be proud?
Sadly, I believe I know the answer to this. *sigh*
M. Cyrus played Hanna Montana, a fictional persona that her character made up to keep her character’s real life separate from her fictional persona’s stage life. Basically living 2 lives and switching back and forth between them as the plot of the show dictated.
Now my rhetorical question is, Why the hell do I know that since I’ve never seen a single episode of that show?
It was also the the theme song. (source: I have two sisters)
“I have two sisters.” <- Don't lie.
She has a song that is something about the best of both worlds.
I feel that Chris should ban himself for even bringing up Hannah Montana. Or at least get smacked on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.
I second this motion.
Neat.
is this limited to just google play edition rom and sense rom?
He said he’s working on the S4 after the One. If it goes big, everyone will be doing it soon.
Screw Hannah Montana (no pun intended), how about Superman? Or any other superhero for that matter? O.o Lol
Twerk (twerk) Miley Miley Miley twerk.
Very nice… but I’ll keep Sense 5 and 4.2
This looks really cool. Has it really been looked for though?
I suppose some users could use it. I’m more of the thinking of controlling my own UI and freezing bloatware and never switching back to a fully bloated UI
I hope this will be brought over to the HTC One Mini. That would be very nice actually.
Nice! But how much space does stock take up? Having both Sense and stock will eat away the already limited space in my H1…
My understanding is that the underlying code that’s shared between Stock and Sense is shared between the two ROMs. From memory you only lose an additional 500MB from the single ROM.
stock is “stripped down” so id say not much. Its like a new coat of paint on the same barn.
The Best of Both Worlds since Jay-z and R Kelly….
any chance this comes to galaxy s4?
Yep. He says S4 is after HTC One in the video! Glad the One is first though…for me! ;)
I hope all manufacturers implement this feature, it would be highly nice to see.
Once again the video link does not appear on the app. Any word on a fix for this?
The key words in that being “stripped down” Which is essentially what all ROMs are. Especially those for use on older devices.
Ill wait for the official release from HTC
Cool fact no ones knows unless if you go to the actual site (I don’t remember if he says it in the video). He plans on being able to implement certain features on the whim into the Google Edition from Sense 5. Imagine running Google Edition, but then being able to switch to the Sense 5 camera without rebooting or lag! Freaking awesome!