Report claims Google may move to 'privately' develop Android's future

What you need to know

• Google reportedly "confirmed" to a publication that it will move to "privately" develop its Android OS and slow down its AOSP releases.
• The main purpose of this is to "streamline" its process, as Google won't have to worry about "merging conflicts" with the AOSP as often.
• Google is still expected to release its open source code on the AOSP as usual, but with a small change to its cadence.
• Android 16 recently achieved Platform Stability ahead of its expected Q2 2025 launch.

A curious report on the future development plans of Android from Google has surfaced, detailing its potential impact.

A report by Mishaal Rahman (Android Authority) supposedly "confirms" Google will shift to privately developing the Android OS as soon as "next week." The claim that Google's audible to a "private" focus only seems to facilitate a more "streamlined" approach to its OS development. According to Rahman, this more privatized way of developing Android will have a "minimal" impact for end-users who await these updates once completed.

Additionally, developers, both those who create custom ROMs and others who contribute to the AOSP, will also see little impact.

Rahman claims this change will more directly impact Google and the AOSP (Android Open-Source Project). The company will allegedly "change the frequency of public source code releases for specific Android components." Rahman states that, with Google's normal public source code releases for the AOSP, the company needs to "spend time and effort merging patches."

The "merging" part is key as Rahman states conflict often arises between the two branches and the involved code. To avoid getting too technical, Google is required to patch these issues between its internal branch and the AOSP through its normal public source releases. Making its development more private will slow things down to help this happen less often.

Rahman alleges nothing will change for developers looking forward to Android 16 as its open source code will see an expected release when it's ready. This makes sense as the entire purpose of the AOSP is for other developers to create their Android OS skins, like One UI from Samsung. However, since Google may take Android's software behind closed doors for longer (and more often), tipsters/leakers could find it harder to see what's coming.

Nothing has been directly confirmed yet from Google. The report alleges the company will make an official statement about this development change "later this week," so we'll see what happens.

In other news, Android 16 recently achieved an important milestone: Platform Stability. Beta 3 rolled out for enrolled Pixels, bringing with it additional accessibility tools for low-vision users via Text Outline. The patch also includes "Local Network Protection," which lets users control what apps can access their device. Platform Stability is the last step before Android 16's grand rollout for users.

This step should consume the rest of March and April before the software drops in Q2 2025.