The writing has been on the wall as Google has slowly moved away from Android as the core product and toward the bright light of artificial intelligence. This week’s news about how Google plans to change how it develops the operating system seems to seal the deal. Android Authority confirmed that Google plans to take Android development entirely in-house. Essentially, Google is privatizing the Android source code.
As with all things privatized, this is good news for Google, the company that operates Android. It streamlines Android development so that the company doesn’t have to worry about managing two sets of source code and fielding comments while working on the next version of Android. It’s good news for users, too, because it means there won’t be two versions of Android floating out in the ether while it’s in development. It can be confusing to navigate between the internal branch of Android source code, which Google passes out to the brands under Google Mobile Services (GMS) agreements, and the public Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which anyone and any manufacturer can use.
It also speaks to how priorities have changed internally at Google as it shifts focus toward what AI can do on its various software platforms. Gemini is the main sell, now. It was apparent last year at Google I/O 2024 that it would become the objective, especially after the hardware and software teams were combined into an all-inclusive “Platforms and Devices” team. Then, a month after the conference, Google announced that former Vice President of Engineering for Android, David Burke, would be stepping into an advisory position at the company instead. Burke had been a steward of the platform for 14 years.
The move to developing Android in-house shouldn’t have too many implications on the platform. “The change makes sense when it comes to allocating resources to work that matters,” texted Carolina Milanesi, a principal analyst, after I asked her about what this means for the broader smartphone market. Overall, nothing major will change with the Android platform on the consumer-facing side. The biggest difference will be in how Google interfaces with the developers who don’t have GMS agreements. “Developers will have maybe less understanding of what is coming…but their access ultimately doesn’t change,” added Milanesi.
As of this writing, Google hasn’t publicly blogged about this change, though I independently confirmed with the company that this is the route it’s headed. It’s likely because nothing should change on the side of Android users. If anything, the code sleuthing you see going on around Android blogs may dry up over the coming months since Google won’t release as much of its source code to the public until it’s ready for primetime. It will annoy developers fishing around for future tidbits, but it shouldn’t bother anyone using an Android phone otherwise.
