OpenPhone

OpenPhone is an AI-native Android OS. Instead of a chatbot app bolted onto a phone, OpenPhone runs a system-level agent as a privileged OS component that can see the screen, operate apps, remember commitments, watch phone events, and continue work in the background — with user review and auditability built into the OS.

The current developer preview is based on LineageOS 23.2 / Android 16 and targets Google Pixel 9a (tegu) first.

What can you do with it

• "Catch me up on everything important from overnight" — consume missed calls, messages, notifications, and calendar changes, then return a short morning gist.
• "Order me an Uber to the office" — open the right app, set the destination, select a ride, and stop for review before booking.
• "If I miss a call from this number, send them 'I'll call you back soon'" — create a watcher tied to future call context and message policy.
• "Watch for delivery updates and only bother me if something changes" — turn notification noise into a targeted background monitor.
• "Keep working on this after I leave" — continue a multi-step task as a visible background run with approval where needed.

More context on the runtime model is in Architecture and Agent Runtime.

Pick a path

I want to try it. The fastest path is the SDK phone emulator. It boots OpenPhone on your workstation and lets you smoke-test the framework services, the assistant app, and the CLI/MCP surface without flashing a device. → Quickstart

I want to build for hardware. OpenPhone builds a full Android image for Pixel 9a via the standard repo workflow. This needs a Linux build host and several hundred GB of disk. → Build

I want to understand how it works. Start with Architecture, then read Capabilities (what the agent is allowed to do) and Agent Runtime (how background jobs work).

I want to integrate a runtime or tools. OpenPhone exposes the phone as a protocol endpoint. Adapters like OpenClaw and Hermes map remote agent runtimes onto the same phone tool surface. Start with the Runtime Agent Protocol.

I want to port it to a new device. Read Device Support for the acceptance model, then the Pixel 9a notes as a working example.

I want to contribute. Read the Contribution guide and the AI-First Engineering loops we run against the repo.

What's in this repo

This repository is the canonical OpenPhone entry point. It contains the OpenPhone-owned Android overlay, the privileged assistant app, framework patches, model/tool policy configuration, build scripts, device notes, machine-readable contracts, and release tooling. It does not vendor the full Android source tree — the standard repo workflow does that.

docs/          Product docs, device notes, legal, releases, testing.
manifests/     Android repo local manifests.
overlay/       OpenPhone-owned files copied into the Android tree.
patches/       Patch stacks applied on top of upstream LineageOS repos.
schemas/       Machine-readable runtime contracts and eval schemas.
scripts/       Sync, patch, build, flash, validation, and release helpers.
services/      Reference services, including the development model broker.
runtime/       Runtime Agent Protocol manifests.

License

OpenPhone-owned materials are source-available for non-commercial use under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. Commercial use requires a separate written license from Dafdef, inc. See Licensing.