Google started the Android project in response to our own experiences launching mobile apps. We wanted to make sure there would always be an open platform available for carriers, OEMs, and developers to use to make their innovative ideas a reality. We also wanted to avoid any central point of failure, so no single industry player could restrict or control the innovations of any other. Our single most important goal with AOSP is to make sure that open source Android software is implemented as widely and compatibly as possible, to everyone's benefit.
Google oversees the development of the core Android open source platform and works to create robust developer and user communities. For the most part, the Android source code is licensed under the permissive Apache License 2. We chose the Apache 2. For details, see Licenses. Launching a software platform is complex. Openness is vital to the long-term success of a platform, because openness attracts investment from developers and ensures a level playing field.
The platform must also be a compelling product to users. Google has committed the professional engineering resources necessary to ensure that Android is a fully competitive software platform. Google treats the Android project as a full-scale product development operation and strikes the business deals necessary to make sure great devices running Android make it to market. By making sure Android is a success with users, we help ensure the vitality of Android as a platform and as an open source project.
After all, who wants the source code to an unsuccessful product? Google's goal is to ensure a successful ecosystem around Android. We opened the Android source code so that anyone can modify and distribute the software to meet their own needs. We release great devices into a competitive marketplace. We then incorporate the innovations and enhancements we made into the core platform as the next version.
In practice, this means that the Android engineering team focuses on a small number of "flagship" devices and develops the next version of Android software to support those product launches. These flagship devices absorb much of the product risk and blaze a trail for the broad OEM community, who follow up with more devices that take advantage of the new features.
In this way, we make sure that the Android platform evolves according to the needs of real-world devices. Each platform version of Android such as 1. The most recent branch is considered the current stable branch version. This is the branch that manufacturers port to their devices. This branch is kept suitable for release at all times. Simultaneously, there's a current experimental branch, which is where speculative contributions, such as large next-generation features, are developed.
Bug fixes and other contributions can be included in the current stable branch from the experimental branch as appropriate. Finally, Google works on the next version of the Android platform in tandem with developing a flagship device. This branch pulls in changes from the experimental and stable branches as appropriate. For details about codelines, branches, and releases, see AOSP code management. It typically takes more than a year to bring a device to market.
And, of course, device manufacturers want to ship the latest software they can. Meanwhile, developers don't want to constantly track new versions of the platform when writing apps. Both groups experience a tension between shipping products and not wanting to fall behind. To address this, some parts of the next version of Android including the core platform APIs are developed in a private branch. These APIs constitute the next version of Android. Our aim is to focus attention on the current stable version of the Android source code while we create the next version of the platform.
This allows developers and OEMs to use a single version without tracking unfinished future work just to keep up. Other parts of the Android system that aren't related to application compatibility are developed in the open. It's our intention to move more of these parts to open development over time.
When they're ready. Releasing the source code is a fairly complex process. Some parts of Android are developed in the open, and that source code is always available. Other parts are developed first in a private tree, and that source code is released when the next platform version is ready.
In some releases, core platform APIs are ready far enough in advance so that we can push the source code out for an early look prior to the device's release.
In other releases, this isn't possible. In all cases, we release the platform source when we feel that the version is stable, and when the development process permits. Releasing the source code for a new version of the Android platform is a significant process.
First, the software is built into a system image for a device and put through various forms of certification, including government regulatory certification for the regions the phones will be deployed. The code also goes through operator testing. This is an important phase of the process, because it helps detect software bugs. When the release is approved by the regulators and operators, the manufacturer begins mass producing devices, and we begin releasing the source code.
Simultaneous to mass production, the Google team kicks off several efforts to prepare the open source release.
These efforts include making final API changes, updating documentation to reflect any modifications that were made during qualification testing, for example , preparing an SDK for the new version, and launching the platform compatibility information. Our legal team does a final sign-off to release the code into open source. Just as open source contributors are required to sign a Contributors License Agreement attesting to their intellectual property ownership of their contribution, Google must verify that the source is cleared to make contributions.
From the time that mass production begins, the software release process usually takes about a month, so source code releases often happen at around the same time the devices reach users.
Interfaces and architecture Learn how the pieces fit together, from the kernel to the HALs to updatable system components. Understand architecture. Android security is essential Find out how the Android security program works and learn how to implement the latest features.
Implement security. Design compatible devices Offer consistent experiences across different Android-powered devices for users and app developers. Test devices. About the Android Open Source Project Android is an open source operating system for mobile devices and a corresponding open source project led by Google. Android Security Bulletin. Pixel Update Bulletin. That is the short and simple answer to the question what is AOSP. This, in and of itself is an open source initiative led by Google.
And in a way, you are right in that regard. It may sound confusing, but what people usually call Android is most likely a heavily modified version of it. Any smartphone manufacturer which sells an Android smartphone is using the Android Open Source Project. All of these different versions of Android, feel, and perform drastically different but they are all based upon the same set of code that is known as AOSP.
As I mentioned, Google maintains the codebase for Android and then releases those changes once a year to the Android Open Source Project repository. This allows all of these smartphone OEMs to start with a clean base of code and then add on their changes onto it. Google has the final say when it comes to what is and is not accepted into the Android Open Source Project repository. These APIs are not only available to Google and smartphone OEMs, but they are also open to 3rd-party developers for applications and games that you see in the Play Store.
It may seem like most of the new features of the brand new version of Android is based on the newly added API, that is usually not the case. You can learn more about that feature here. There are a number of them that can drastically change the way you use your smartphone.
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