Unplugged Doubles Down on Open Source
Putting Transparency and Trust at the Core of Smartphone Privacy
Unplugged is redefining what it means to build technology you can truly trust. In a world where most smartphones operate behind closed doors, we’re doing the opposite—opening our operating system and inviting the public in.
Privacy and transparency aren’t buzzwords we use for marketing—they’re the foundation of everything we build. By open-sourcing UnpluggedOS, we’re holding our own technology accountable—giving security professionals, researchers, and developers the power to see and verify how the UP Phone protects its users.
Unplugged stands apart because we take a truly vertically integrated approach, designing and controlling the hardware and software layers. This gives us a level of accountability, transparency, and security rarely seen in the smartphone industry.
Built on the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP), UnpluggedOS delivers a fully open version of Android—without Google Mobile Services or the tracking, analytics, and surveillance that typically come with it.
In the latest release, we have open-sourced UP Phone’s groundbreaking Firewall along with the UP Photos (a fork of Ente) and UP Antivirus apps. Other open-source components include:
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Linux Kernel: The heart of the operating system, managing security, memory, and hardware.
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Android Framework Layer: The system services and public APIs that let apps talk to the OS—permissions, UI, notifications, location, telephony, and connectivity.
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Android Runtime (ART): The engine that runs apps and manages memory and security.
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Native Libraries: Core building blocks for crypto, graphics, media, and databases.
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System Services: The high-level processes that keep your phone running smoothly—power, audio, input, and display.
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Core Daemons: The background processes that handle startup, storage, networking, and logging.
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In the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), the interface between Android and the hardware (such as the camera, sensors, and Wi-Fi) is open source via Android’s public specifications (AOSP) and defined by a standardized contract between Android’s system layers and hardware vendors.
All UnpluggedOS open-source components are released under trusted licenses such as Apache 2.0 and GPL, allowing anyone to review, reuse, and contribute.
Our open-source approach goes beyond code—it’s about accountability. By combining privacy-first hardware with transparent, verifiable software, Unplugged is setting a new standard for trust in mobile technology. And this is only the beginning—we’ll continue expanding our open-source initiatives in the months to come.
We are grateful to the open source community and to so many developers who work tirelessly and whose contributions benefit a more decentralized, private mobile experience.
Explore UnpluggedOS source code at .https://github.com/werunplugged/up_os.