Back when the partnership between Xiaomi and Google on the Mi A1 Android One device was announced, it finally seemed like the affordable and top quality hardware from the East and the premium software support from the West would merge into something awesome. While Xiaomi Mi A1 has been impressive, it hasn’t been the standard-setting device we hoped it would be, with even features like Project Treble support kept away from reach.

Related: Xiaomi Mi A1 update news

However, for those of you who are still holding onto hope, there seems to be some light shining down through XDA user CosmicDan. While Xiaomi has not designed the storage partition of the Mi A1 to be Project Treble compatible, the effort is being made to do this manually and is still a work in progress. Obviously enough, working around with the storage partitioning of the device leaves it quite vulnerable to bricking, which is why the developer has been clear about the project for being available only to developers and for research purposes.

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Based on the “Phases”, the work would begin at repartitioning the device, modifying TWRP recovery to read the different partitions, and then adding Treble support to Android 8.0 for Mi A1.

Either way, we’ll keep you updated on it and recommend that you keep your hands off it until the developer green-lights the operation.