Google: Android development no longer public

Google is restructuring the development of its Android mobile operating system: There will no longer be a public development branch for Android components in future, Google confirmed to Android Authority magazine. Instead, Android will only be developed internally in future.

According to Android Authority, this does not mean the end of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP): Google intends to continue publishing finished versions of Android, the company confirmed to Android magazine. However, intermediate development steps, which were previously made available for some Android components in a public development branch, will be discontinued.

In practice, Android innovations will therefore be published less frequently. This is particularly significant for components of the mobile operating system that were previously primarily developed publicly. According to Android Authority, these include the Bluetooth stack and the virtualization framework. However, the majority of Android development has already taken place internally.

Impact only on the curious

According to the report, the changeover will take place as early as next week. All further developments of Android will then take place in internal development branches before the source code is bundled and published at a later date. For users, this should change little to nothing, writes Android Authority. The switch to completely internal development branches could even speed up update development somewhat.

The change may be annoying for certain developers who like to familiarize themselves with Android innovations as quickly as possible. The fact that Google is switching to purely internal branches means less transparency in the development process. This also means that information about the progress of development is less likely to become public because experts can no longer read into the code and discover clues about future features.

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