UBports has officially released Ubuntu Touch OTA 2.0, a major update built on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS that brings the mobile OS into the modern era. The long-awaited Chromium 134 engine upgrade lands in Morph Browser to resolve historical web compatibility headaches, while notch avoidance and Widevine DRM support round out the feature set. New hardware support now includes the Zinwa Q25 alongside existing Fairphone, Volla, and Xiaomi devices. Users can install the new software via System Settings, though a mandatory two-step migration ensures a smooth transition across supported handsets.
Ubuntu Touch Lands Its Most Ambitious Update Yet, Built on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
UBports has officially shipped Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.0, a feature-heavy release built on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. The Morph Browser engine jumped from Chromium 87 to Chromium 134, which should finally make modern web apps behave. You can flash the new image on twenty-one supported devices starting today.
Canonical killed the Ubuntu Phone project back in April 2017. Mark Shuttleworth pivoted the company toward cloud infrastructure and IoT, leaving the mobile codebase in the hands of a newly formed German charity. Nine years later, that community project is releasing what is easily its most polished update to date.
The Chromium Jump and Modern Display Fixes
Web compatibility was historically Ubuntu Touch's weakest point. Sites that refused to load in older browsers should finally behave. Hardware video decoding still falls back to software, which means higher power draw. UBports says more engine bumps are coming in later 24.04-2.x releases.
Notch and rounded-corner avoidance landed this cycle. Modern displays mask content under front-facing cameras and curved glass. The patch works for the Fairphone 4 and 5, Volla's lineup, and a handful of community ports. It still stutters in landscape mode, so head back to portrait until UBports sorts it out.
The original Ubuntu Phone hardware costs more on the used market now than they did at launch. That market dynamic makes software maturity matter more. Printing support arrived as an opt-in toggle. You enable it under System Settings, grab the optional component, and hope your printer plays nice over mDNS.
Widevine DRM follows a similar path. The installer pulls the module from a ChromeOS recovery image. Google hasn't licensed it, so streaming restrictions might still bite you. The release notes explicitly call it a legally grey area.
What Ships With OTA 2.0
The device list grew by one. The Zinwa Q25 joins the officially supported roster. Volla, OnePlus, Fairphone, and Xiaomi models round out the rest. If you're keeping score, that is twenty-one devices running a Linux-based phone OS in 2024.
Other changes include a screenshot editor that opens right after capture, Georgian keyboard layouts, roughly two thousand new emojis, and improved mobile data stability. User data encryption just moved from testing to stable on newer handsets that support fscrypt v2. Legacy X11 apps via Libertine also got a quiet boost.
Keep in mind that the two-step upgrade path is mandatory. Next, the accompanying 24.04-1.4 maintenance release handles the migration. Existing users should push to 1.4 first, then launch 2.0. The base update ships phased, so your OTA might take a day or two to appear. UBports also notes that increased storage requirements mean this cycle skips some previously supported handsets entirely.
It is a rather ambitious feature set for a community-driven OS. Though the polished notch handling and modern browser engine do help it feel less like a hobby project. However, at the same time, the lack of wide retailer backing and the Widevine caveat keep it firmly in the enthusiast space.
Head here to install Ubuntu Touch on a supported device. Existing users should check System Settings => Update. Bug reports belong on the UBports GitLab instance. The next maintenance bump is expected later this month.
