Update 1 (2/28/19 @ 08:05 AM IST): As promised, Realme is now rolling out an update that lets you unlock the bootloader on the Realme 1. More details in the update section below. The original article follows.

Realme, OPPO's online-only spin-off, has been fairly popular in India thanks to its attractively-priced offerings. Due to the response earned by its devices, Realme recently secured the fourth place position among the top five smartphone brands in India, overtaking its parent OPPO. It was also the second most successful smartphone brand operating with an online-only model for the previous quarter and is now making efforts to sustain this growth.

While Realme is slowly ramping up its efforts to take the Indian market by storm, there is one area where it is still lagging, i.e. support for third-party mods and development. Most of its devices do not support bootloader unlocking, thereby blocking the development of customs ROMs, kernels, etc. However, that will be changing very soon.

Iterating his earlier promise, Realme's CEO, Madhav Sheth, informed that the company's first device - the Realme 1 - will soon get the functionality of bootloader unlocking. This functionality will be rolled out to Realme 1 users through a software update by the end of February. The update will also add a Reboot feature to the power menu and bring the February 2019 Security patch, the executive wrote on his Twitter.

Last month, the company opened up applications for bootloader unlocking for the Realme 2 Pro. The process for doing this, however, is more lengthy than the standard fastboot method. In order to unlock the bootloader on the 2 Pro, users must sideload an APK file and wait for almost an hour after submitting their application. Once this time has elapsed, they can move ahead and unlock their smartphones' bootloaders.

Apart from the Realme 1 and 2 Pro, the company has not laid out any plans to allow bootloader unlocking on other devices.

Furthermore, the executive also shared a timeline of the security updates for other Realme devices. All of the models, including Realme 2 and 2 Pro, C1, and U1 will also receive the latest February 2019 security update by the end of February.

Update 1: Realme 1 users can now unlock the bootloader

Right before the end of February, the Realme 1's promised update that adds bootloader unlocking functionality has been pushed by the company. The update comes with the February 2019 security patches and also adds a reboot function and a camera watermark function. Here's the full changelog:

  • Camera
    • New camera watermark.
  • System
    • Added reboot function.
    • Supported the function for unlocking bootloader.
  • Security
    • Android Security Patch Level: February 5, 2019.

You can download the 2.11GB OTA file from the link below. The build number is CPH1861EX_11.A.29. Instructions on how to install it can be found here.

Download Realme 1's February 2019 Update