Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR 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.
However, multiple developers quickly noticed a glaring omission from the Android 16 source code release: the device trees for Pixel devices were missing. Google also failed to upload new driver binaries for each Pixel device and released the kernel source code with a squashed commit history. Since Google has shared the device trees, driver binaries, and full kernel source code commit history for years, its omission in this week’s release was concerning.
These omissions led some to speculate this week that Google was taking the first step in a plan to discontinue AOSP. In response, Google’s VP and GM of Android Platform, Seang Chau, refuted these claims. He addressed the speculation in a post on X, stating that “AOSP is NOT going away.”
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
He also confirmed the omission of Pixel device trees is intentional, stating that “AOSP needs a reference target that is flexible, configurable, and affordable — independent of any particular hardware, including those from Google.” Instead of supporting AOSP builds on Pixel devices, Google will support the virtual Android device “Cuttlefish” as its reference target. Cuttlefish runs on PCs, allowing Google and platform developers to test new hardware features. Google will also continue to support GSI targets, which are generic system images that can be installed on nearly any Android device.
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