Every Android phone — regardless of the brand — shares one core foundation: the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). While manufacturers can heavily customize their Android builds, the core system underneath is open-source and maintained by Google. After more than 16 years, Google is making a major shift in how it handles Android development: all development will now take place privately, within internal branches.
AOSP, licensed under Apache 2.0, has long allowed anyone to use, modify, and distribute Android without licensing fees. This flexibility helped drive its widespread use and led to custom Android forks like Samsung’s One UI. While AOSP is open to external contributions, Google has always been the main contributor, treating Android as a fully managed product, not just an open-source platform.
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To manage this, Google maintained two key development branches: the public AOSP branch, visible to anyone, and an internal branch accessible only to partners with a Google Mobile Services (GMS) license. Though some components (like the Bluetooth stack) were developed openly in AOSP, most of Android’s core — including the framework and new platform features — was built behind closed doors.
Now, that dual-branch model is ending. Google is consolidating everything into its internal branch.
Why?
Maintaining two separate branches led to repeated merge conflicts and delays. Features developed internally would sometimes clash with structures in AOSP, requiring manual fixes. Even small changes — like rearranging accessibility settings or adding build flags — created headaches. Multiply that across thousands of commits, and the inefficiency became untenable.
As of next week, all Android OS development will happen internally, and source code will only be released when Google publishes a new Android version or branch. This won’t make Android closed-source — Google will still release source code for major versions like Android 16 — but the frequency and transparency of updates will decrease significantly.
Who’s Affected?
- Regular users? Not really. This change won’t speed up updates to your phone, but it also won’t slow them down.
- App developers? Unaffected — this shift only impacts platform-level code.
- Custom ROM devs and AOSP tinkerers? Yes. With fewer frequent updates and delayed visibility into new features, working with AOSP will become harder unless you’re inside the GMS circle.
- Tech reporters and leakers? Definitely. Much of what we knew about upcoming Android features came from combing through AOSP commits. That window is closing.
This shift reflects a long-standing tension: Google’s desire to treat Android as both a product and a platform. By centralizing development, Google avoids duplication, improves internal coordination, and reduces the overhead of managing two diverging branches. It’s not great for transparency, but it’s practical from a product engineering standpoint.
Yes, it may look like Android is becoming less open, and in some ways that’s true — especially for developers and analysts who relied on AOSP to understand where Android was heading. But Google has committed to keeping Android source code public, even if access is now more delayed and controlled.
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More details are expected when Google formally announces the change later this week, along with new documentation on source.android.com. Stay tuned if you’re involved in platform-level development or just curious about Android’s evolving architecture.