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Exclusive: Google will develop the Android OS fully in private, and here’s why
Android OS development will now fully happen behind closed doors, but Google says it's committed to releasing source code
- Google has confirmed to Android Authority that development of the Android operating system will soon fully happen in private.
- Currently, Google shares some of the work it does on the public AOSP Gerrit, but moving forward, this work will all be done in private.
- The goal for this privatization is to simplify Android OS development and not to hinder external developers, which is why Google remains committed to publishing source code to AOSP after each release.
No matter the manufacturer, every Android phone has one thing in common: its software base. Manufacturers can heavily customize the look and feel of the Android OS they ship on their Android devices, but under the hood, the core system functionality is derived from the same open-source foundation: the Android Open Source Project. After over 16 years, Google is making big changes to how it develops the open source version of Android in an effort to streamline its development.
The Android Open Source Project, or AOSP for short, is an operating system that Google releases under the Apache 2.0 License. Apache 2.0 is a software license that allows anyone to use, distribute, or modify and distribute operating systems based on AOSP without the need to pay any licensing fees or release source code. This permissive licensing structure has facilitated the widespread adoption of AOSP, leading to the creation of customized forks like Samsung’s One UI.
