Hopefully AOSP Pixel device support is merely delayed, not ended, since Pixel is the only way to get Debian Linux ("Terminal") VM + desktop mode support, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43973395.
With Apple's ongoing refusal to enable VM/JIT support on iOS and iPad, Google Pixel + GrapheneOS + Debian is a very competitive 2025 offering.
This is my biggest iPad gripe. I understand the security, but just make it a new "entitlement" that is only given to UTM, Parallels and VMWare fusion.
Or make it a "developer mode" that you can only enable if you pay $99 a year. I'd be fine with that, but the whole iPad is unusable for any kind of software development and I'd love to be able to travel with just an iPad because for everything else I do while I'm traveling (watching videos, reading, browsing, writing, drawing) the iPad is great and I don't have to lug two devices around.
It's not about security. Apple doesn't want to open on external applications, including the one run in VM/emulators, because it wants every software to pass from the AppStore. Not because security, but for the fee it has on app store purchases.
If it opens to having VM, you could just run another OS in a VM (Windows, for example) and install normal software on it (like the desktop version of most programs) and not pay the AppStore fee.
It's only a commercial reason, not a security one.
If it was really about security (in the sense of that which benefits the end user) they'd just stick it behind a toggle and be done with it. I just think it's important to call out the misalignment - security can refer to the interests of the end user, or alternatively to the vendor. The ambiguity is convenient for PR statements.
Can’t you already do that? If you pay 99/year you can sign your own apps with whatever entitlements no? You just can’t submit them to the Apple Store for obvious reasons
After years of being stuck with iPhones I'm also eager to soon switch back to Android. iOS always just felt like a polished compromise. Have been a happy customer of LOS using OnePlus devices. But LOS always also seemed a little opaque and casual. Hence I set my eyes on GrapheneOS and in consequence on a device from the Pixel lineup.
In an alternate universe, trade war and rare earth minerals shortage halts manufacturing of new iPhones, operating system updates become paid products and existing iPhones must implement the secure launch protocol that Asahi Linux uses on Apple Silicon, enabling AOSP for iPhones.
> Apple has dropped the ball so badly that Sky is like a perfect storm of what they could have done, but didn’t. And now, not only is it a third-party app that is doing what Apple should have done, but it is also doing it in a better way that anything they ever shipped.
Wait what? This is a screenshot of 9 short lines of text from the Reddit image server. What is actually going on? Android source is still Apache licensed right? How are these things becoming closed source? What is happening?
As far as I understand this only concerns Google Pixel devices, and AOSP "coming to an end" is mostly speculation. Is this going to affect other manufacturers too, e.g. the Fairphone[1]?
How does the firmware upgrade cycle looks like? Does their secure element securely throttle pin brute force? Does their hardware offer modern memory protection?
From the Android VPN and GM:
"We're seeing some speculation that AOSP is being discontinued. To be clear, AOSP is NOT going away. AOSP was built on the foundation of being an open platform for device implementations, SoC vendors, and instruction set architectures.
AOSP needs a reference target that is flexible, configurable, and affordable – independent of any particular hardware, including those from Google. For years, developers have been building Cuttlefish (available on GitHub as the reference device for AOSP) and GSI targets from source. We continue to make those available for testing and development purposes."
Ready-made AOSP device trees for Pixels, which are needed to build custom ROMs, are the ones going away. This is a blow to GrapheneOS as they have been dedicating 100% of their time to improving their ROM itself in the past few years.
Since at this point they'll need to create device trees like LineageOS does with Snapdragon/MTK phones, so I hope they won't stick with the worst Android manufacturer on Earth.
Especially now that the snapdragon 8 elite 2 will have the same security features as the Tensors.
Never mind, it seems like they're thinking of wasting their time with a custom ODM-built smartphone. I truly hope they won't choose this route. If they do someone should add "Will the GrapheneOS-Phone fail?" on Polymarket, I'll bet my parents' house on it.
Reading between the lines tells me they're discontinuing Pixel AOSP support which is a pretty big blow with zero warning to those who used them as de facto reference models.
Pixel device trees and other code used to adapt the AOSP release to specific (Made by) Google hardware was not released in a big change from precedent. Without the Pixel hardware repos (which include the device trees, driver binaries, and more), custom Android ROMs will have a hard time developing their OS updates. This might also have implications for security (vulnerability) researchers.
Some large organizations buy Pixel hardware for security properties and an ecosystem with multiple teams testing and contributing upstream. Their procurement teams may have opinions on this change.
This is my take, too. I'm surprised by all the skepticism here, it looks to me like another case of techies not being able to see the wood for the trees.
These companies believe that AI puts them in an existential battle for survival. They're battening down the hatches. Concepts like open source and community collaboration can only look like unaffordable luxuries in such a context. Quaint, even.
IMO the last remaining hope for free software is going to be an entirely separate hardware-OS ecosystem, plus funding and lobbying to ensure that the web platform remains competitive.
Indeed. Also remember that android supports multiple form factors and pixel at best served as. reference only for phones. Auto, watches, and tablets were ill served. Cuttlefish, the replacement, works for all form factors.
sad, was thinking to switch from iPhone to pixel 10 in few months once released exactly for the reason that is clean android and gives and escape hatch to use grapheneOS or lineageOS or calysOS. Any other android phone manufacturer that is supported by any of those projects? Most devices supported except pixel devices are few years old.
I'm moving away from Pixel Phones for my next Android. Going to switch back to Samsung. I currently have a Pixel 8 and my screen went completely green and glitchy yesterday (Google "android green screen", it's a hardware issue). It freaked me out because Im in the beginning of a long vacation with tickets held digitally in various apps and email. Thankfully I eventually figured out the solution which is ridiculous, when it happens again I just need to squeeze the bottom of my phone. My last Pixel phone just completely died on me randomly as I unplugged it from my car. And I've had previous Pixel phones just ignore calls, sending them straight to voicemail (which is a common issue if you Google that as well).
I will miss having stock android and timely updates, I will hate Samsung bloatware and apps I can't uninstall, but it's I hope to have more stability and longer life for my phones. In barely getting 2 years of life from my Pixels. I'm also seriously considering iPhones as well.
You need to manage your expectations with Pixel devices. They are often on sale. Buy the A series for ~$300, which is also what the Nexus phones used to be priced at. They easily last 3+ years, and if they die after that it's no big deal. Dying early, bootlooping, overheating, etc. have been a part of these devices since they have existed.
The green screen issue is covered by warranty, so get your display swapped at an official repair store. The new ones don't have the green screen issue.
Fwiw, I've had a similar screen issue (turned green or magenta and glitchy, parts of the screen image disappearing, until one day it turned black) happen with two Samsung phones.
> Most devices supported except pixel devices are few years old.
That pretty much sums it up, there's a reason all of those custom ROMs pivoted to supporting basically just Pixels. Apart from Pixels, your only options are Fairphone and a few years old Chinese models (Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus), none of which are even close to state-of-the-art hardware.
Custom ROMs are pretty much dead, this just might be the final nail in their coffin.
I tried to switch from iPhone to Pixel and switched back. Modern Pixel is absolutely not clean android. It's a mess of misfeatures. There's no clean android. iPhone is lean and compact compared to Android. GrapheneOS is solid, but built by security freaks, so unless you're a fan of OpenBSD, it makes little sense to use it. And any custom ROM locks you out of many important apps, like banks apps, NFC payments, etc (unless you want to actively combat integrity system).
GrapheneOS only supports Pixels due to their having superior security features [0]. Calyx supports Pixels as well as some newer Motos and the Fairphone 4 and 5 [1]. Lineage supports tons of devices [2].
LineageOS is the only one of the three that supports older hardware, but I'd recommend getting a previous-gen Pixel for the seven-year (at least) support cycle.
I don't get the motivation behind this RedHatification. Hasn't Google already won in the Android space ? Nobody that matters is forking or using AOSP without Google's blessings anyway due to the stranglehold of Google Play Services. Why the sudden dick move ? I see some mention of the impending antitrust cases, but I don't quite see how that fits.
Could be they don't want devices to have latest Android before their own latest flagship devices are released. They might release the AOSP in Aug when the new Pixel hardware drops.
When you say that they dont want the latest android before their own flagship devices are released, do you mean people running AOSP before the new pixel releases with it or other phone manufacturers/carriers beating them to releasing it?
If the second one, that seems a bit unlikely. Atleast here, I don't think I've seen a carrier that delivers an updated android without taking a long time first - iirc this was part of the reason google made it possible to split out security updates and such, to kind of work around that
I recently found out that using Kagi it is possible to configure RegEx replacements in the search results (this makes it possible to replace "[www.]reddit.com" with "old.reddit.com").
Can you even use the Play store on AOSP? I was interested in trying it (I don't use Android currently) but from what I gathered it seemed like a bit of a fraud (on Google's part) because it was fundamentally gimped.
You can on ROMs like LineageOS. The Play Store is part of the Gapps package some users install during the installation of the system. Alternatively there is microG and the Aurora Store, so the play store itself isn't needed.
Some apps will delegate parts of itself to be downloaded from play store on demand. Meaning without play store, some apps literally won’t work because it will fail to launch the component needed to be downloaded from play store.
I’ve came across this in app when accessing some secure flows, like adding credit card numbers.
>it seemed like a bit of a fraud (on Google's part) because it was fundamentally gimped.
AOSP is designed to be customized by vendors before they ship a device with it. Development of AOSP goes towards the shared OS pieces that actually get used and not towards things which would just get swapped out. Which is why the stock user space has not had much investment.
At some point in the past you could. I used the Play Store with my Nexus One running cyanogenmodrom 15 years ago with no trouble. I haven't tried lately, but I'm planning to. Hopefully there aren't too many hoops to jump through to register an "unauthorized" device with Google.
Which makes life more difficult for downstream projects. However the recent release didn't include the usual device-specific sources.
> This means AOSP 16 cannot currently be built or run on any recent Pixel device easily just using official source. It’s unclear whether this is a delay or a policy change. Either way, it seriously disrupts custom ROM development and our porting efforts.
seems not exactly true, they did release android 16 to AOSP but "Google did not publish any device-specific source code for supported, modern Pixel devices."
> Google pushes the code for the next release to the latest public release branch and updates the android-latest-release manifest to point to that branch.
Unlikely now, but the writing has been on the wall since "Android Market" became "Google Play Store" and feature after feature has slowly been migrated from AOSP to GMS over the years. The frog continues being brought to boil, and the inevitable will eventually happen.
People became lazy because of the "godsent" involvement of corporates.
This involvement was not free and not guaranteed because of their profit/power motives.
I think it is the time for the community to find innovative solutions for the community and to guarantee involvement by the community.
There are boards out there and x64/arm64 motherboards that can run AOSP.
Someone has to take the task of co-ordinating the efforts and maintain good documentation on how people can contribute, in a friendly to the community manner. I think it is possible.
> Google did not publish any device-specific source code for supported, modern Pixel devices.
> In previous years, Google released full device trees alongside new Android versions. This allowed developers to build and boot AOSP on Pixel hardware relatively easily.
> With Android 16, only the platform/framework code has been released. The device trees are missing, at least for now.
> This means AOSP 16 cannot currently be built or run on any recent Pixel device easily just using official source. It’s unclear whether this is a delay or a policy change. Either way, it seriously disrupts custom ROM development and our porting efforts.
Hopefully AOSP Pixel device support is merely delayed, not ended, since Pixel is the only way to get Debian Linux ("Terminal") VM + desktop mode support, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43973395.
With Apple's ongoing refusal to enable VM/JIT support on iOS and iPad, Google Pixel + GrapheneOS + Debian is a very competitive 2025 offering.
This is my biggest iPad gripe. I understand the security, but just make it a new "entitlement" that is only given to UTM, Parallels and VMWare fusion. Or make it a "developer mode" that you can only enable if you pay $99 a year. I'd be fine with that, but the whole iPad is unusable for any kind of software development and I'd love to be able to travel with just an iPad because for everything else I do while I'm traveling (watching videos, reading, browsing, writing, drawing) the iPad is great and I don't have to lug two devices around.
It's not about security. Apple doesn't want to open on external applications, including the one run in VM/emulators, because it wants every software to pass from the AppStore. Not because security, but for the fee it has on app store purchases.
If it opens to having VM, you could just run another OS in a VM (Windows, for example) and install normal software on it (like the desktop version of most programs) and not pay the AppStore fee.
It's only a commercial reason, not a security one.
5 replies →
If it was really about security (in the sense of that which benefits the end user) they'd just stick it behind a toggle and be done with it. I just think it's important to call out the misalignment - security can refer to the interests of the end user, or alternatively to the vendor. The ambiguity is convenient for PR statements.
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Can’t you already do that? If you pay 99/year you can sign your own apps with whatever entitlements no? You just can’t submit them to the Apple Store for obvious reasons
3 replies →
They will never allow this. They want to control and also cash in on the apps you use on these devices.
Apple wants you to buy both... $100/year may make it worth it for them.
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Urchin Tag Manager?
1 reply →
After years of being stuck with iPhones I'm also eager to soon switch back to Android. iOS always just felt like a polished compromise. Have been a happy customer of LOS using OnePlus devices. But LOS always also seemed a little opaque and casual. Hence I set my eyes on GrapheneOS and in consequence on a device from the Pixel lineup.
In an alternate universe, trade war and rare earth minerals shortage halts manufacturing of new iPhones, operating system updates become paid products and existing iPhones must implement the secure launch protocol that Asahi Linux uses on Apple Silicon, enabling AOSP for iPhones.
https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2025/06/03/2155
> Apple has dropped the ball so badly that Sky is like a perfect storm of what they could have done, but didn’t. And now, not only is it a third-party app that is doing what Apple should have done, but it is also doing it in a better way that anything they ever shipped.
> since Pixel is the only way to get Debian Linux ("Terminal") VM + desktop mode support
My Librem 5 also offers the desktop mode, since it just runs a desktop OS based on Debian (PureOS).
Wait what? This is a screenshot of 9 short lines of text from the Reddit image server. What is actually going on? Android source is still Apache licensed right? How are these things becoming closed source? What is happening?
Apache is not copyleft so new versions can become closed source.
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As far as I understand this only concerns Google Pixel devices, and AOSP "coming to an end" is mostly speculation. Is this going to affect other manufacturers too, e.g. the Fairphone[1]?
[1] https://www.fairphone.com
Fairphone should still be able to get the source for Android from Qualcomm.
How?
5 replies →
How does the firmware upgrade cycle looks like? Does their secure element securely throttle pin brute force? Does their hardware offer modern memory protection?
Not true.
From the Android VPN and GM: "We're seeing some speculation that AOSP is being discontinued. To be clear, AOSP is NOT going away. AOSP was built on the foundation of being an open platform for device implementations, SoC vendors, and instruction set architectures.
AOSP needs a reference target that is flexible, configurable, and affordable – independent of any particular hardware, including those from Google. For years, developers have been building Cuttlefish (available on GitHub as the reference device for AOSP) and GSI targets from source. We continue to make those available for testing and development purposes."
https://x.com/seangchau/status/1933029688202703062
Ready-made AOSP device trees for Pixels, which are needed to build custom ROMs, are the ones going away. This is a blow to GrapheneOS as they have been dedicating 100% of their time to improving their ROM itself in the past few years.
Since at this point they'll need to create device trees like LineageOS does with Snapdragon/MTK phones, so I hope they won't stick with the worst Android manufacturer on Earth. Especially now that the snapdragon 8 elite 2 will have the same security features as the Tensors.
Never mind, it seems like they're thinking of wasting their time with a custom ODM-built smartphone. I truly hope they won't choose this route. If they do someone should add "Will the GrapheneOS-Phone fail?" on Polymarket, I'll bet my parents' house on it.
3 replies →
The Pixel device trees going away is very disappointing, but he headline "AOSP project is coming to an end" is an exaggeration.
Reading between the lines tells me they're discontinuing Pixel AOSP support which is a pretty big blow with zero warning to those who used them as de facto reference models.
FWIW: Google says Android Open Source Project not being ‘discontinued’ amidst Pixel change impacting custom ROMs
https://9to5google.com/2025/06/12/android-open-source-projec...
Some large organizations buy Pixel hardware for security properties and an ecosystem with multiple teams testing and contributing upstream. Their procurement teams may have opinions on this change.
While the title is jumping the gun a little, it is only a matter of time until I suspect this will be real. Give it maybe 5 years Max.
That said, first rule of predictions, don't provide a time frame.
This is my take, too. I'm surprised by all the skepticism here, it looks to me like another case of techies not being able to see the wood for the trees.
These companies believe that AI puts them in an existential battle for survival. They're battening down the hatches. Concepts like open source and community collaboration can only look like unaffordable luxuries in such a context. Quaint, even.
IMO the last remaining hope for free software is going to be an entirely separate hardware-OS ecosystem, plus funding and lobbying to ensure that the web platform remains competitive.
Correct title would be: Google is locking Google Pixel platform.
Sounds more like "Google Pixel is no longer the reference device for AOSP"
Indeed. Also remember that android supports multiple form factors and pixel at best served as. reference only for phones. Auto, watches, and tablets were ill served. Cuttlefish, the replacement, works for all form factors.
sad, was thinking to switch from iPhone to pixel 10 in few months once released exactly for the reason that is clean android and gives and escape hatch to use grapheneOS or lineageOS or calysOS. Any other android phone manufacturer that is supported by any of those projects? Most devices supported except pixel devices are few years old.
I'm moving away from Pixel Phones for my next Android. Going to switch back to Samsung. I currently have a Pixel 8 and my screen went completely green and glitchy yesterday (Google "android green screen", it's a hardware issue). It freaked me out because Im in the beginning of a long vacation with tickets held digitally in various apps and email. Thankfully I eventually figured out the solution which is ridiculous, when it happens again I just need to squeeze the bottom of my phone. My last Pixel phone just completely died on me randomly as I unplugged it from my car. And I've had previous Pixel phones just ignore calls, sending them straight to voicemail (which is a common issue if you Google that as well).
I will miss having stock android and timely updates, I will hate Samsung bloatware and apps I can't uninstall, but it's I hope to have more stability and longer life for my phones. In barely getting 2 years of life from my Pixels. I'm also seriously considering iPhones as well.
You need to manage your expectations with Pixel devices. They are often on sale. Buy the A series for ~$300, which is also what the Nexus phones used to be priced at. They easily last 3+ years, and if they die after that it's no big deal. Dying early, bootlooping, overheating, etc. have been a part of these devices since they have existed.
6 replies →
The green screen issue is covered by warranty, so get your display swapped at an official repair store. The new ones don't have the green screen issue.
Why not return your phone for warranty when its obviously broken (hardware wise)?
Fwiw, I've had a similar screen issue (turned green or magenta and glitchy, parts of the screen image disappearing, until one day it turned black) happen with two Samsung phones.
> Most devices supported except pixel devices are few years old.
That pretty much sums it up, there's a reason all of those custom ROMs pivoted to supporting basically just Pixels. Apart from Pixels, your only options are Fairphone and a few years old Chinese models (Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus), none of which are even close to state-of-the-art hardware.
Custom ROMs are pretty much dead, this just might be the final nail in their coffin.
> (Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus), none of which are even close to state-of-the-art hardware.
Well, Pixel is arguably pretty shitty hardware as well
3 replies →
this is not true at all. the 1yr old OP12 has LineageOS and so does the 6 months old 13R, with support for the 13 incoming.
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I tried to switch from iPhone to Pixel and switched back. Modern Pixel is absolutely not clean android. It's a mess of misfeatures. There's no clean android. iPhone is lean and compact compared to Android. GrapheneOS is solid, but built by security freaks, so unless you're a fan of OpenBSD, it makes little sense to use it. And any custom ROM locks you out of many important apps, like banks apps, NFC payments, etc (unless you want to actively combat integrity system).
I don't see what OpenBSD has to do with it. Is this like liking reliability in a car meaning you are a Toyota fan?
I've had no trouble with banks, brokers or payment networks on GrapheneOS but I don't use crap like company-X pay wallets..
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"Security freaks"
"OpenBSD"
"Locks you out of many important apps ... (Unless you want to combat integrity system)"
When did you try to switch?
1 reply →
Fairphone
GrapheneOS only supports Pixels due to their having superior security features [0]. Calyx supports Pixels as well as some newer Motos and the Fairphone 4 and 5 [1]. Lineage supports tons of devices [2].
LineageOS is the only one of the three that supports older hardware, but I'd recommend getting a previous-gen Pixel for the seven-year (at least) support cycle.
[0] https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices
[1] https://calyxos.org/docs/guide/device-support/
[2] https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
grapheneos is still going strong
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114661914197695338
Glad to hear, that was my immediate worry upon seeing the thread.
I don't get the motivation behind this RedHatification. Hasn't Google already won in the Android space ? Nobody that matters is forking or using AOSP without Google's blessings anyway due to the stranglehold of Google Play Services. Why the sudden dick move ? I see some mention of the impending antitrust cases, but I don't quite see how that fits.
> Nobody that matters is forking or using AOSP without Google's blessings anyway due to the stranglehold of Google Play Services.
What about Amazon's tablets?
Or every Android phone sold in China
1 reply →
Could be they don't want devices to have latest Android before their own latest flagship devices are released. They might release the AOSP in Aug when the new Pixel hardware drops.
When you say that they dont want the latest android before their own flagship devices are released, do you mean people running AOSP before the new pixel releases with it or other phone manufacturers/carriers beating them to releasing it?
If the second one, that seems a bit unlikely. Atleast here, I don't think I've seen a carrier that delivers an updated android without taking a long time first - iirc this was part of the reason google made it possible to split out security updates and such, to kind of work around that
I mean xda etc making AOSP roms before Google releases its new hardware
On a tangential:
I recently found out that using Kagi it is possible to configure RegEx replacements in the search results (this makes it possible to replace "[www.]reddit.com" with "old.reddit.com").
Unfortunately the old.reddit.com frontend does not support /s/ links.
I've no idea what that even is. For me old.reddit is about accessibility while using a VPN and 18+ content (comparison of vaporizers, for example).
I don't want to have an account there, as this just lures me into using it more and engaging in pointless discussions.
A more measured take: https://www.osnews.com/story/142553/rumour-google-intends-to...
Can you even use the Play store on AOSP? I was interested in trying it (I don't use Android currently) but from what I gathered it seemed like a bit of a fraud (on Google's part) because it was fundamentally gimped.
You can on ROMs like LineageOS. The Play Store is part of the Gapps package some users install during the installation of the system. Alternatively there is microG and the Aurora Store, so the play store itself isn't needed.
I assume that is the same situation on raw AOSP.
Some apps will delegate parts of itself to be downloaded from play store on demand. Meaning without play store, some apps literally won’t work because it will fail to launch the component needed to be downloaded from play store.
I’ve came across this in app when accessing some secure flows, like adding credit card numbers.
1 reply →
It’s been a while, but is LineageOS still going strong? I’ve been thinking of switching back to non-iPhones for a while
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AOSP does not include GMS or the Play Store.
>it seemed like a bit of a fraud (on Google's part) because it was fundamentally gimped.
AOSP is designed to be customized by vendors before they ship a device with it. Development of AOSP goes towards the shared OS pieces that actually get used and not towards things which would just get swapped out. Which is why the stock user space has not had much investment.
I'm calling it a fraud in terms of Android's initial promise to be the great "open source" OS that would free us all from vendor and telco tyranny.
As we all know, it has done nothing of the sort.
At some point in the past you could. I used the Play Store with my Nexus One running cyanogenmodrom 15 years ago with no trouble. I haven't tried lately, but I'm planning to. Hopefully there aren't too many hoops to jump through to register an "unauthorized" device with Google.
In the same way that manufacturers can add the store ("vending") and supporting APKs to the AOSP base they're building upon
Why do pixel device trees have to be updated through different Android versions? If so the differences would be minor, right?
Android Open Source Project
No it's not, they're just not releasing sources until a new version is actually released, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that.
Which makes life more difficult for downstream projects. However the recent release didn't include the usual device-specific sources.
> This means AOSP 16 cannot currently be built or run on any recent Pixel device easily just using official source. It’s unclear whether this is a delay or a policy change. Either way, it seriously disrupts custom ROM development and our porting efforts.
https://calyxos.org/news/2025/06/11/android-16-plans/
Once they give you the device, they're legally required to give you the source code. Most manufacturers don't, but you can sue them and win.
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seems not exactly true, they did release android 16 to AOSP but "Google did not publish any device-specific source code for supported, modern Pixel devices."
https://calyxos.org/news/2025/06/11/android-16-plans/
The alleged claim being made is different than the previous official announcement.
The claim here is that AOSP will stop releasing sources publicly altogether similar to other versions of Android like Wear OS.
FYI: https://source.android.com/docs/setup/about/faqs#android-lat...
> Google pushes the code for the next release to the latest public release branch and updates the android-latest-release manifest to point to that branch.
Along with https://source.android.com/docs/whatsnew/site-updates#aosp-c...
> The android-latest-release manifest is set to the latest AOSP release branch, android16-release
Unlikely now, but the writing has been on the wall since "Android Market" became "Google Play Store" and feature after feature has slowly been migrated from AOSP to GMS over the years. The frog continues being brought to boil, and the inevitable will eventually happen.
Hypothetically, what would happen to the Android SDK and all those developer tools if Google was to go proprietary with AOSP?
One could fork AOSP, but the Android SDK is not open source, is it?
People became lazy because of the "godsent" involvement of corporates.
This involvement was not free and not guaranteed because of their profit/power motives.
I think it is the time for the community to find innovative solutions for the community and to guarantee involvement by the community.
There are boards out there and x64/arm64 motherboards that can run AOSP.
Someone has to take the task of co-ordinating the efforts and maintain good documentation on how people can contribute, in a friendly to the community manner. I think it is possible.
Bad info
From https://calyxos.org/news/2025/06/11/android-16-plans/ -
> Google did not publish any device-specific source code for supported, modern Pixel devices.
> In previous years, Google released full device trees alongside new Android versions. This allowed developers to build and boot AOSP on Pixel hardware relatively easily.
> With Android 16, only the platform/framework code has been released. The device trees are missing, at least for now.
> This means AOSP 16 cannot currently be built or run on any recent Pixel device easily just using official source. It’s unclear whether this is a delay or a policy change. Either way, it seriously disrupts custom ROM development and our porting efforts.
That's awful. I bought a pixel because the ecosystem around alternative android roms was healthy. This seems to change that.
Why can't I just get a general purpose computer in my pocket? Why is everything so hostile? I am willing to pay!
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