- Google has made it harder to build custom Android ROMs for Pixel phones by omitting their device trees and driver binaries from the latest AOSP release.
- The company says this is because it’s shifting its AOSP reference target from Pixel hardware to a virtual device called “Cuttlefish” to be more neutral.
- While Google insists AOSP isn’t going away, developers must now reverse-engineer changes, making the process for supporting Pixel devices more difficult.
Earlier this year, Google announced it would develop the Android OS fully in private to simplify its development process. By focusing its efforts on a single internal branch, Google aimed to streamline work that was previously split. The news initially spooked some in the Android development community, but the controversy quickly subsided. The impact was minimal, as Google was already developing most of Android behind closed doors and promised that source code releases would continue. Now, however, a recent omission from Google has rekindled fears that the company might stop sharing source code for new Android releases. Google has stated these concerns are unfounded, but other new changes make it harder for the custom ROM community to thrive on Pixel devices.
Is AOSP going away? Google says no
As promised, Google published the source code for Android 16 this week, allowing independent developers to compile their own builds of the new operating system. This source code was uploaded to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), as usual, under the permissive Apache 2.0 license.