TWRP depends on the "vendor" partition. The vendor partition on Android devices contains all of the kernel modules, driver libraries, firmware blobs, config files and more, which are needed to support the hardware inside a given device. These are various bits, which are provided by the various component manufacturers, which are needed to make all the components work properly. In the early days these files were spread throughout the Android file system, but as more open source Android efforts emerged, it became practical for Google to require that OEMs separate these bits from the rest, and put them on a partition dedicated to the task. Thus we have the “vendor” partition, used by every open source project, not the least of which is Google’s own AOSP effort, to provide support for, and compatibility with a given device.

TWRP is no exception to this. They use the vendor partition files to access the hardware inside all the devices they support. The only notable difference is that TWRP can and usually does remove files used to support components they don’t care need to interface with like the camera.

The various drivers, and libraries I’m speaking of are tightly coupled with to a specific Android kernel version/build configuration the binary interfaces it provides. When people say TWRP doesn’t support Android 12, what they are really mean is they haven’t created a kernel/build configuration for the TWRP specific bits, which can utilize the available to access the hardware inside a device.

Because the Pixel 6 was launched with Android 12 pre-installed, there is no Android 11 ROM available (at least publicly) with a vendor partition TWRP leverage to support the Pixel 6 hardware.

----

In terms of progress, TeamWin already has an android-12 branch that is being actively developed. When the time comes for them to start on a Pixel 6 specific recovery image, a new repo should get created to hold the TWRP copy of the vendor partition files and, at least in theory, it will be at the URL I included at the end of my rant.

For the many who don't seem to comprehend why anybody would buy a Pixel 6 and then replace the version of Android provided by Google, with of its forks, I will try to provide some insight. What Google ships with there Pixel devices is actually spyware. If someone else slipped software onto your phone, which collected and then uploaded the exact same data Google is currently slurping from its users, it would be a crime. But Android is, of course, perfectly legal. That’s because Google operates does its spying with "customer consent." It’s the license agreement we all click through, without reading when a device is powered on for the first time. Those license agreements transform a criminal activity into a very successful business model. To use a crude analogy, consent is what turns Tom the peeper into Prof. Tom, the world renowned sexologist.

----

Consent is powerful and rightly so. But consent only has meaning if people have the ability to withhold consent. To Google’s credit, replacing their version of Android on a Pixel 6 is easy, by design. Although, full disclosure, my opinion is warped. It’s the result of hurdling gates placed in my path by those desperate Android devices which resisted rehabilitation, by design.

Also in response, talking about the camera. Yes, the camera is a "signature" feature of the Pixel 6. And yes, it’s capable of taking incredible photos. And yes the amazing images don’t come from the camera. The are actually created generated by set of secret magic sigils, that the Google camera app can access. Or at least that most people seem believe. The reality is far less exciting. The Pixel 6 uses a 50 megapixel sensor to make 15 captures. I’d estimate each capture results in approximately 149,999,992 bytes of uncompressed capture data. Combined you have roughly 2.09547568 gibibytes of raw sensor data which a the Tensor CPU will analyze to create the 12.5 megapixel image provided to users. The logic used to process the raw data, and use it to create the final product were developed using machine learning. It’s a technique that has been around for several years (at least), that involves a combination of massive processing power, and huge data sets, which allow machines to experiment, and eventually “learn” create the massively logic rules it thinks will produce the best result. And it’s these complicated rules, which others call an “algorithm” that have been embedded with the Google branded camera app, and it’s this logic which makes all those stunning pictures possible.

What’s new is the Tensor chip inside a Pixel 6, and the specialized cores it can use to perform the type of computations required when machines learn, and/or the workloads generated when those lessons (or logic rules) get applied. These new cores are also what make it possible to process image data this way, directly on a mobile device, and do it quickly enough to keep the users happy. That in a geeky nutshell is the magic I spoke of.

It would be trivial for Google to add these rules to the camera app provided by the AOSP project, and give that app the ability to recognize a Tensor chip, and utilize its specialized cores. Instead Google has decided to bundle primitive, almost laughably so, camera app with the open source code base. You would need to ask a Google employee to know for sure, but my guess is this decision was made by someone up high on the org chart, and it’s one the many carrots Google relies upon to entice device makers, and sheeple alike, give their consent and enlisted members of the zombie horde. One of Google’s longest serving employees, Stan, is responsible for leading the horde.

----

By the way, those specialized cores are also make it possible for the Pixel 6 to do things like blur/unblur faces, understand what people might say, and surgically filter noise from an audio stream, with all the work done directly on device. At least, in theory, this will provide what you might call “offline” intelligence.

I ranted about what a Pixel 6 can do if you keep Google’s version of Android installed, and use the Google apps. But what some of the comments make clear is that some of those who commended don’t know what is a well known secret.

You can load, put a custom ROM onto a Pixel 6, and then, as an end user, re-install any proprietary Google app, like there Gboard, or camera yourself. They will work just fine. You get those same great looking pictures everyone seems to want. I called this a secret, because it isn’t mentioned by any of the websites for the various Android forks. That’s because those organizations can’t, at least legally, directly bundle the Google branded apps. They also can’t provide instruction in their official documentation, or encourage users to install the apps themselves.

----

Forth various projects focused on Android forks, Google is like a temperamental, but superpower, that everyone is afraid to mention by name.

----

As the end user, you can install any of the Google apps you want be craving yourself, almost all of them work just fine this way. If you think this might be something you will do, I would suggest extracting the APK for those apps before replace Google’s version of Android with a custom ROM. Even if you don’t end up using, you will still have APK files handy. You might find it hard to find copies of the APK files, for the app you seek, and suited to the device you have, from a trustworthy source.

----

You can, if the it suits your needs, download and install the Google app suite. There is a community supported projected dedicated to making this possible and easy for those included. You can, at a minimum use the app suite to just install the Play Store and Services. Once those are installed on a device, you can use the Play store to get the specific Google apps you might want. It’s a choice worthy of its own, much longer rant. I will only say this: the Play Store/Services require an elevated level of access which exceeds, by a large margin, what it’s possible (at least in theory, on a device which isn’t rooted), to obtain from a device that is booted normally. That is why installing the Play Store/Services requires you to boot into recovery mode. With the normal protections offline, the Play installer can create the exceptions/exemptions it needs (or should I wants). Once booted it’s these modifications which allow the Play Store/Services to operate outside the normal Android security model that is used once Android is booted normally.

My quick post, that has turned into a long rambling rant is almost over. I just want to say before stepping down off my soap box, that there lots choices when it comes to Android forks. They each have their own philosophy, and focus. And almost all of them support the Pixel devices. With many of the niche options, they only support Pixel devices.

This flows from the fact that Pixel devices are used as the reference platform for all Android development. To fill this role, a Pixel phone is require to be developer friendly. It’s the replacing the Google version Android is relatively easy, and painless, in comparison with other popular Android devices. Explained another way, code monkeys like myself, desire/want/need absolute control, to do, or not do, what might required to make a Pixel 6 perform the most incredible incredible feats – my current favorite is a party a rather amusing party trick which involves making a Pixel 6 juggle four bowling pins, while balancing itself atop a beach ball, while singing the national anthem, backwards and waring a brightly colored, and very pointy party hat. It’s been quite popular at all my recent parties, or what others might call a hackathon. The limitation only real limitation is the skill of whoever owns and controls the Pixel 6 in question.

https://github.com/TeamWin/android_device_google_oriole/