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Google is changing its Android development approach by promoting all upcoming updates to private internal branches. The company will no longer have a public development branch for its Android Open Source Project (AOSP), a major departure from the way the operating system develops. Google has affirmed that the source code for Android releases will still be publicly released after new versions are complete.
Up to now, Google has handled Android updates on two branches, the public AOSP branch and an internal company branch. External developers and contributors used the public branch to follow new features and enhancements. The AOSP branch usually fell behind Google's internal development, resulting in delays and bugs when merging patches.
From next week, Google will merge all development into its exclusive private internal branch. Features and updates will no longer be visible in AOSP until the release of a new version officially. The step is to streamline Android's development process by minimizing differences and lessening errors while merging code.
Even with this change, Google assured that Android would continue to be an open-source project, with the source code released after updates are complete. The company will also continue to publish the Android kernel source, which is a fork of the Linux kernel.
General app developers and smartphone users will not be directly influenced, but the change may affect developers who follow AOSP commits for information about future features. Custom ROM developers, such as LineageOS developers, who usually base themselves on Google's stable release tags, are also likely to stay unaffected. However, news outlets that discover future Android features by following AOSP commits may no longer be able to access early information.
Google will release the source code for Android 16 in the coming months, which is consistent with this new practice. The company's move to take the development process in-house is part of a larger trend in the industry toward more control over software ecosystems. With this shift, Google expects to streamline Android's evolution while keeping its open-source promises in an organized fashion.
