Google Shifts the Android Open Source Project to Twice-Yearly, Rather Than Quarterly, Releases

Google has announced that it is pulling back on its Android Open Source Project (AOSP) releases, dropping to twice-yearly updates rather than following the closed-source operating system's quarterly update cadence.

"Effective in 2026, to align with our trunk stable development model and ensure platform stability for the ecosystem, we will publish source code to AOSP in Q2 and Q4," Google has warned developers working with the Android Open Source Project code-base. "For building and contributing to AOSP, we recommend utilizing android-latest-release instead of aosp-main. The android-latest-release manifest branch will always reference the most recent release pushed to AOSP."

Google launched the Android operating system back in 2008, having acquired it from Andy Rubin, Chris White, Rich Minder, and Nick Sears' Android Inc. in 2005, and in mid-2025 launched the sixteenth entry in the series. Designed around a Linux kernel, Android quickly became the most popular mobile operating system and is found on smartphones, tablets, in-car entertainment systems, home theater systems, and even wearables — many of which rely on the regular release of the project's open source components. Previously this was handled by Google as part of the Open Handset Alliance, launched in partnership with a variety of embedded system vendors in 2007 but in recent years having been dormant in favor of Google taking direct control over its previous purview.

These releases typically followed Google's work on the closed-source Android operating system it installs on its Pixel hardware family and licenses to third-party device makers, with development taking place in closed repositories before being dumped en-masse in the public AOSP repositories, but no longer: from now, the AOSP code base will only be updated twice-yearly, in the second and fourth quarters of the year.

The move has been announced against the background of Google's earlier declaration of intent to require anyone publishing applications for Android to submit to identity verification measures and software checks, even if said applications would be distributed outside Google's Play Store ecosystem or "sideloaded" onto devices as a downloadable APK package. While that was originally to come into force this year, and would see anyone with an Android phone unable to install unverified-by-Google software, the company walked back its plans with a promise that it would provide an "advanced flow" for power users to retain access to unverified apps.

More information on the new schedule is available on the Android Open Source Project website.