The developers behind ParanoidAndroid have been busy building incremental updates to the popular ROM. It's usually a few bug fixes and a couple new features, but the newest version of ParanoidAndroid contains something super-cool. Halo 2.0 has been demoed on video as part of PA 3.97.

[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/E6GGJATC2xc

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Halo is ParanoidAndroid's custom multitasking system that works on the same premise as Facebook Chat Heads. A tiny floating icon can be used to retrieve notifications and background apps without leaving the current application. It was already cool, but v2.0 could be an amazing update. The new Halo supports multitouch so you can interact with the notifications and app previews without pulling up the floating window. This might be a bit awkward, but it's used several times in the video without incident. Halo also pulls the actual notifications now, not just the text.

Other changes in ParanoidAndroid 3.97 include the following:

  • Quick Settings: Option to use floating window
  • MMS: Option to switch on screen automatically (+Francisco Franco made this for us, we think making features suits him well)
  • ParanoidOTA bugfixes (still beta, sorry)
  • Bionic/Krait/CAF optimizations
  • New Gapps 0815 (additional downloads)

The new PA build should be up for testing at the links below, but it will vary by device. The goo.im links seem to be showing up faster than the ParanoidAndroid.co listings. Keep in mind this is a large shift in codebase, and there are bound to be bugs. Also, Halo 2.0 was tested on the Mako (Nexus 4). As maintainers roll out more devices, there could be additional hitches.

[Google+, PA Download (goo.im), PA Download (paranoidandroid.co), Gapps: 1, 2]