Android: Google makes the development of custom ROMs more difficult

Google has thrown a spanner in the works of the custom ROM community: With the release of Android 16, the company has also released the source code of the new OS version in the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP), which independent developers can use to compile their forks of the operating system under the fairly permissive Apache 2.0 license. However, the company has not included the device trees for Pixel devices that were previously released at the same time.

Google: AOSP is alive, but …

The company has not published either the driver binaries or the complete kernel source code commit history, thus deviating from its usual practice to date. This omission led to speculation that Google could possibly discontinue the AOSP program altogether, as the makers of GrapheneOS said.

But it's not that dramatic. AOSP will remain, as Google's Vice President and General Manager of the Android platform, Seang Chau, on X assured: “AOSP will NOT disappear. AOSP was built on the foundation of an open platform for device implementations, SoC vendors and instruction set architectures.”

However, the manager confirmed that the lack of pixel device trees was not a mistake. He explained that “AOSP needs a reference target that is flexible, configurable and affordable – regardless of any particular hardware, including Google's”.

Instead of supporting AOSP builds on Pixel devices, Google is aiming for developers to use the Android virtual device  “Cuttlefish” as a reference. Cuttlefish runs on PCs and allows Google and platform developers to test new hardware features. Google also wants to continue to support GSI targets, which are generic system images that can be installed on almost any Android device, explains Chau.

Google's reasoning sounds partially understandable. Nevertheless, custom ROM developers feel offended. For years, they have been using Pixel smartphones as development platforms or using the source code as a reference for other devices to update every Android version, as Nolen Johnson writes on X. He has been involved in the development of LineageOS for years.

Johnson told Android Authority that the development of custom ROMs will be“painful” in the future. Until now, Google has made it easy for developers to create AOSP for Pixel devices. Developers could simply use the configurations provided by Google, add their customizations and compile a custom ROM.

By doing away with this, they have to fall back on old device trees that Google published for Android 15 and – so Johnson – “blindly guess” and reverse-engineer from the pre-built binaries to analyze what changes are needed each month.

“Big step in the wrong direction”

The situation looks even more serious for the developers of the hardened GrapheneOS. This is because they offer their custom ROM exclusively for Pixel devices, as it was previously very easy to install Android alternatives on Pixel devices and also to return to the original software. On the other hand, Google provides better security updates for its devices than many other Android manufacturers, which is a particularly important aspect for Graphene.

The AOSP changes from Google are a major obstacle for GrapheneOS, meaning that compiling a new version on Android 16 takes far longer than usual. “We'll still get it done, but not nearly as fast as we think is acceptable,”  the developers write on Reddit.

GrapheneOS was shaken even before Google's new AOSP strategy, as the operating system's most active and lead developer is unavailable. He was apparently drafted into military service in March, meaning that work on the custom ROM is slower than usual.

The new situation with the Pixel devices seems to have prompted Graphene to develop its own hardware for Graphene earlier than planned. “We don't understand why these changes were made, and it's a big step in the wrong direction,” GrapheneOS said on Mastodon.

Whatever the motives were for Google to make life harder for custom ROM developers. By removing the Pixel files from the AOSP, Google is aligning itself with other smartphone manufacturers, who are making access to their devices more difficult. The only difference is that the installation of custom ROMs will remain simple for now thanks to an easily unlockable bootloader on Pixel smartphones.

(afl)