Last chance to unlock your LG smartphone bootloader! Developer website reaches a dead end

Earlier this year, we were hearing and seeing leaks about an LG smartphone with a rollable screen. The company was also expected to launch a flagship with Qualcomm's flagship platform. However, in February, news broke out about the company's demise in the smartphone segment. After frustrating attempts of selling its mobile division, the company decided to totally shut it down. This scrapped the plans for a rollable display and also killed any possible LG smartphone coming in 2021. The company promised to offer support for existing/supported devices, but there is still a limit to what it will offer.

LG revealed that it will be bringing three years of OS updates to its most recent flagship smartphones. We can list devices like the LG Velvet and the fancy LG Wing, some mid-range devices should still get one or two updates. Alternatively, users can unlock the bootloader to try their luck with the custom ROMs provided by talented developers in the Android community. However, even this possibility will be closed in a few weeks. In the next month, the Korean firm will no longer provide keys to unlocking bootloaders.

It will be impossible to unlock your LG smartphone bootloader from January 1, 2022

There's a notice on the developer website saying that the company will shut down its "bootloader unlocking provider". From December 31, all information available on the website as well as the bootloader unlock keys will no longer be available.

If you own any of the smartphones that will still be eligible for future Android upgrades, then this may not be a huge problem. But if you intend to keep these smartphones for a few years, they can become in the future. So unlocking the bootloader of a device from a dead mobile division does not seem to be a bad idea. We don't know exactly how the situation is for LG smartphones in the custom ROM community. Anyway, we assume that it's still better than what LG is offering. The devices should still get a couple of Android updates and ports in the coming years, but even that will be limited in the forthcoming years.

LG always provided valid ways to unlock its smartphones' bootloader. Meanwhile, the growing smartphone brands have big limitations in this regard. Companies such as Xiaomi, Motorola, and OnePlus are some of the few brands that offer a "clear" way to unlock the bootloader. Other brands like Realme, Oppo, Vivo, and Honor are very limited in this regard. Samsung also provides bootloader unlocking tools, but it clearly breaks the "Knox" security key.