Being true to their promise, switchroot has released their highly anticipated method of bringing Android to your Nintendo Switch console. This marks the first public release of LineageOS 15.1, and is based on a build of Android that runs on the Nvidia Shield TV. By flashing the installation image to your micro SD card, you can use Android 8.1 Oreo on the Switch, in both handheld and docked mode. Some of the features include audio support, allowing the Joy-Cons to connect through bluetooth, offering CPU and GPU performance profiles, and more.

As this is a beta release, you should be aware that there are a few bugs. Some notable issues are that sleep mode battery life is lacking, certain apps have problems with being controlled with the Joy-Cons, the screenshot function is disabled, wifi can be spotty, and a few other quirks.

If you're interested in playing around with this release, you can follow the instructions below to get started, with the download links being available in the source.

LineageOS 15.1 for Nintendo Switch by switchroot. This is the first publicly available Android ROM for the Nintendo Switch. Based on the Nvidia Shield TV builds it brings a smooth and powerful Android experience to your Switch in both handheld and docked mode.

1. Pick the image that corresponds to the size of your SD card. You can use an image that is smaller than your card. You’ll end up with the remaining space unused on your card.
2. Write the image to your SD card with e.g. balenaEtcher Do not extract the image, Etcher can handle the compressed image just fine! WARNING: This will overwrite any contents on your card! The progress bar/percentage might go haywire in Etcher, but you can ignore that. The flashing will still work and Etcher will let you know when it’s done. It can take up to an hour depending on your SD card’s speed. Also make sure not to format any of the partitions when Windows prompts you to after flashing.
3. Download GApps for Android 8.1. from OpenGApps, use ARM64. Put the file on the first partition of your new SD card
4. If desired download the "Shield-ifier" zip and place it also on the SD card. This will make your Switch identify as Nvidia Shield TV and install the Nvidia app.
5. Load hekate and boot to TWRP by holding VOL+ when you select the Android config.
6. Flash GApps zip, optionally flash other zips
7. Reboot to hekate and boot into Android
8. Complete the inital setup. For the Nvidia app to work make sure to update it from Play Store!

Source

 

[gamemasteru03]

For anybody who wants to know how powerful the switch cpu is in andriod I ran a geekbench test.

Balanced:

Single core: 706
Multi core: 2062

Quick:

Single core: 1004
Multi core: 2928

I didn't run performance because I dont want to overclock my switch that much. I tried nividia geforce now and it ran amazingly well. I also tried tvzion (it's an app similar to kodi) and it worked great. Although there were some glitches this is a preatty great first build!

 

[linuxares]

Before I read to many "it's not running well" etc. Just read the known bug list. It's massive. This ISN'T for daily driver at all.

 

[Deleted User]

Didn't come across such app or setting yet.
Joy cons get connected to the Switch like it does to any other android device except there is no lag.

That is awesome about no lag. As for droid apps that can perform touch controls the only one that comes to mind is TinCore, It is powerful but the UI and in general the whole configuration process is terrible.

I had the perfect profile for touch controls via button inputs created once on my old GPD XD, and then they got erased somehow; I was never able to remake the config even after 2-3 years, I cri evri tim =(.

This would be a cool feature to have built into the OS/payload and then TinCore could be avoided entirely.

 

[Legend Of Kay]

After doing everything for some reason my sd card only has 2gb of space. It’s a 64gb card so I don’t understand.

 

[Deleted User]

After doing everything for some reason my sd card only has 2gb of space. It’s a 64gb card so I don’t understand.

It sounds like that you may have flashed the incorrect image or you're viewing the wrong drive. Sometimes your one SD card can appear as multiple devices in Windows after you flash an image too it

 

[Smoker1]

After doing everything for some reason my sd card only has 2gb of space. It’s a 64gb card so I don’t understand.

That might be the System Rom. The Bulk of the SD Card is apparently Hidden. No idea how to Access it for right now

 

[LightyKD]

I'll wait for more bugs to be worked out and maybe even the ability to use the same SD card or boot from USB. I don't like having to swap cards. The SD card slot on the Switch doesn't give me much confidence in its durability. Has anyone tried Netflix on this yet?

 

[Deleted User]

I'll wait for more bugs to be worked out and maybe even the ability to use the same SD card or boot from USB. I don't like having to swap cards. The SD card slot on the Switch doesn't give me much confidence in its durability. Has anyone tried Netflix on this yet?

Some have and it seems to be locked to 480p currently unless you do some tomfoolery with root

 

[Legend Of Kay]

It sounds like that you may have flashed the incorrect image or you're viewing the wrong drive. Sometimes your one SD card can appear as multiple devices in Windows after you flash an image too it

I did extract the image from the .gz file which I just realised I wasn’t meant to do! Reflashing now and will see if it fixes the issue.

 

[Rahkeesh]

The input lag on the joycons feels very low, so much better than samsung S9 pie which isn't even among the worse of android. Playing the native Sonic port feels sublime here. Performance switching apps or going to the desktop is a bit janky but games themselves run smooth. Very worth the trouble if you have some android games with controller support or want to use the more advanced emulators or game streaming. Time to get a flip grip for Drastic!

That might be the System Rom. The Bulk of the SD Card is apparently Hidden. No idea how to Access it for right now

The bulk of the card is treated as internal memory by android, while the exposed Fat32 partition is treated like an external SD card. If you wanted to figure out how to run regular switch CFW, that exposed partition would probably be the one to expand and fill up. You can use a smaller image on your card to free up space to expand the fat32 partition. Not sure if you can get an emunand partition going on top of all that though.

 

[EmulateLife]

I'll wait for more bugs to be worked out and maybe even the ability to use the same SD card or boot from USB. I don't like having to swap cards. The SD card slot on the Switch doesn't give me much confidence in its durability. Has anyone tried Netflix on this yet?

I said the same thing about swapping cards almost to a tee yesterday, and got several snarky comments, including that it's silly to not want to swap sd cards and that I was a millenial (which I'm not) anyway I agree with you 100%.

 

[ieatpixels]

Half Life 2 running smoothly.

 

[LightyKD]

I said the same thing about swapping cards almost to a tee yesterday, and got several snarky comments, including that it's silly to not want to swap sd cards and that I was a millenial (which I'm not) anyway I agree with you 100%.

It sucks that you received those kind of comments. I'd much rather have everything on one card and some sort of dedicated launcher on the Switch menu. Maybe have a setup where we could partition our SD cards so that Android could have a dedicated section.

 

[WhoIAm]

The SD card slot on the Switch doesn't give me much confidence in its durability.

FWIW, the SD card module is extremely easy to replace- it’s literally the first thing that comes off after removing the backplate, and before digging in any further. So I personally wouldn’t worry too much about it.

 

[Smoker1]

No answer yet, which is why I am repeating my Question, for others as well who need help with this - How can Users Copy/Transfer Data? When Connecting the USB, it comes up as PI USB to Serial. How do I Access it? Is it something I have to change in TWRP?

 

[phillyrider807]

No answer yet, which is why I am repeating my Question, for others as well who need help with this - How can Users Copy/Transfer Data? When Connecting the USB, it comes up as PI USB to Serial. How do I Access it? Is it something I have to change in TWRP?

Only way as of now is to use wifi

 

[Solitario]

i tried with a micro sd class 4 and it ran very slow the android random crashes .... don't try this with a microSDHC Card - Class 4

 

[Legend Of Kay]

That might be the System Rom. The Bulk of the SD Card is apparently Hidden. No idea how to Access it for right now

This seems to be it unfortunately. Is there anyway to access the system memory?

 

[Smoker1]

Only way as of now is to use wifi

So it requires FTP then? What App for the Android Side would be best?

 

[phillyrider807]

So it requires FTP then? What App for the Android Side would be best?

"Wifi file transfer"

The free version on the google store has a file size limit though. But a cracked version isn't hard to find. (Not sure what the rules for talking about android files are on here)