Google's Android OS Will Reportedly Be Developed Privately as Company Shifts Strategy

Google is making changes to how it develops its open source Android operating system (OS) as part of efforts to streamline and optimise the development process, according to a report. While development of the next version of Android currently takes place on a public branch and an internal branch, Google will soon move all Android development to the latter. The company will continue to publish source code for new Android releases, which means the move isn't likely to impact custom ROM developers and other platform developers.

Why Google Will Develop Android on Its Internal Branches

According to an Android Authority report, Google will begin to move all Android development to its internal branches next week. The company has decided to fully develop the Android OS in private, and will only publish the source code for changes made to the operating system after a new branch is published by the company's internal teams.

Until now, Google developed Android across two branches — the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) branch, which is public, and the company's own internal branch. Most software companies use branching to enable developers to collaborate while working on a central code base. However, development on the AOSP branch often lagged behind Google's internal code, according to the publication.

These discrepancies reportedly cause delays while implementing new features, while merging patches for Android code between the AOSP branch and the company's internal branch could also introduce errors. As a result, parts of the Android OS that are currently being developed in public — like Bluetooth components — will now be developed privately.

Google confirmed these changes to the publication, and said that it will continue to publish the source code for Android, and it will remain an open source project. Similarly, the company will also continue to release the source code for the Android kernel (which is forked from the Linux kernel). Developers who want to continue contributing to Android OS development will need to do so on the internal branch, which requires a Google Mobile Services (GMS) licence.

As a result, both app developers and consumers are unlikely to be affected by these changes. Custom ROM developers (like LineageOS) are also unlikely to be impacted, as they typically rely on stable release tags from Google. However, the report suggests that news publications that discover new Android features from public AOSP patches will no longer be able to access these details.