Google announced that it will conduct the development of the Android system behind closed doors comprehensively starting from next week.

For many years, the development process of the Android system has always been transparent, and anyone could see Google’s progress. However, this tradition is now about to undergo a major change: Google has confirmed that starting from next week, it will fully switch to an internal private development mode.

The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) has long provided the outside world with a clear view of how Google builds the Android system. However, Google is now going to completely change its model and move all development work to an internal, closed branch.

Google has confirmed this news to the media Android Authority, stating, “All future Android system development work will be carried out within Google’s internal branches.” In fact, in recent times, Google has gradually adopted this approach to Android development: most of the core work has long been carried out in internal private branches, while the public AOSP branch only includes Bluetooth, the kernel, and some core components. As a result, the AOSP versions currently visible to the outside world often lag far behind Google’s actual internal progress. Developers and observers can only patiently wait for Google to publicly release new versions to access the latest updates and features.

Google emphasizes that this change will not affect the frequency of new version releases; in fact, it may even optimize the development process and avoid delays in development caused by merge conflicts between different branches.

It should be emphasized that Google does not intend to turn Android into a completely closed operating system. Android remains open-source. However, in the future, only the parts that have been fully developed internally by Google and officially released to AOSP will be made visible to the outside world. This includes the release of complete new versions as well as updates to routine maintenance versions.

For ordinary Android users, this change will hardly make any noticeable difference in their experience, and app developers won’t be significantly affected either. The ones truly impacted might only be those occasional “insider news” that leaked from AOSP in the past – for instance, the recent discovery of hints about “Pixel 10” from AOSP code submissions. Such fragmented pieces of information often lead to misunderstandings and excessive speculation in the outside world. Google’s new approach may help avoid such unnecessary confusion.

Google plans to officially announce this decision later this week and officially implement the new development process next week.