Google is making a massive shift in Android development by bringing all development into private internal branches. The migration ends the historical practice of enabling real-time development via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The corporation aims to simplify its workflow and reduce the overhead of maintaining synchronized public and internal branches, which previously required complex synchronization procedures.
Under the new approach, only Google employees and a few partners holding Google Mobile Services (GMS) licenses will have access to the internal development branches. Despite this change, Google reaffirmed its open source vision, stating that the completed source code of finished Android versions would still be published publicly via AOSP after development.
To the average user, this alteration will not affect how they use Android updates or capabilities. Developers, custom ROM creators, and technology bloggers who have previously employed AOSP commits to look forward to what new features are coming will no longer have early access to the evolution of Android. This shift will likely affect platform developers and enthusiasts who have grown reliant upon these updates for innovation and customization.
Google’s action follows a broader shift towards trunk-based development, in which all developers are contributing to a single primary copy of the codebase. The methodology is designed to enhance stability and simplify feature integration with feature flags. The company believes this will lead to quicker development cycles and better ready-to-go software releases.
Besides, the change is not specific to the Android operating system only but covers other technologies as well, such as Bluetooth and kernel development. Google plans to deploy these changes in a span of a week, which speaks of a speedy transition to the new model.
Certain developers within the community may regard this as a reduction of transparency, but Google emphasizes that the change is made to boost efficiency and adhere to its philosophy of delivering quality open-source software.
