In a significant move, Google has announced that it will be transitioning to fully private development of the Android operating system after 16 years. This change, confirmed by Google to Android Authority, aims to streamline the development process and reduce discrepancies between public and internal branches.

Previously, Google shared some development work on the public AOSP Gerrit. Now, all development will occur internally. Google has committed to publishing source code to AOSP after each release. While AOSP accepts third-party contributions, Google primarily drives development to ensure Android’s vitality as a platform.

Mishaal Rahman makes one thing clear over on Mastodon:

“Just to be clear: Android is NOT becoming closed source!

Google remains committed to releasing Android source code (during monthly/quarterly releases, etc.) , BUT you won’t be able to scour the AOSP Gerrit for source code changes like you could before.”

This shift will likely have minimal impact on regular users and most developers, including app and platform developers. However, external developers who actively contribute to AOSP will experience reduced insight into Google’s development efforts. Reporters will also have less access to potentially revealing information previously found in AOSP patches. Google has stated that it will announce further details and new documentation on source.android.com.