Google is taking a significant turn in how it develops the Android operating system, moving away from its long-standing practice of building much of the platform in the open. While the company maintains that Android remains open source, the development process is set to become considerably less transparent.
The company confirmed to Android Authority that, going forward, all Android development will occur within Google’s internal codebase. This internal branch, unlike the publicly accessible Android Open Source Project (AOSP), is limited to Google and companies with Google Mobile Services (GMS) licenses — such as Samsung, Motorola, and other major manufacturers.
Google attributes the change to a desire for simplification. According to the company, the previous system, maintaining both public and internal branches, often caused the two versions to drift apart in terms of features and API support. This created a labor-intensive process of merging code for each release. By shifting all active development to its internal branch, Google says it can “streamline releases and make life easier for everyone.”
Despite the shift, the company says it will continue to publish final source code to AOSP once a new Android version is complete. This, it claims, will free developers from the burden of tracking in-progress changes while still giving them access to the finalized platform code. For OEMs, the internal branch offers a more aligned and predictable environment as they develop hardware that often takes a year or more to bring to market.
However, the decision has sparked concern among developers and open-source advocates, many of whom view the change as a step away from Android’s foundational ethos. While Android remains open source in principle, the move significantly reduces external visibility into how it evolves. Previously, public commits to AOSP often offered early clues about upcoming features, platform changes, or hardware support—information that will now be locked behind closed doors.
The reduced transparency means fewer opportunities for early feedback from the developer community, which in the past could flag potential issues or raise concerns about proposed changes.
This isn’t the first sign that Android is moving away from open development. Over the years, Google has steadily migrated key features out of AOSP and into proprietary components. This approach has allowed the company to update critical parts of the system without requiring full OS upgrades — but it’s also given Google tighter control over the platform.
