Google Slows AOSP Source Code Releases Under New Plan

Amid all the CES stuff, Google has quietly changed how often it releases Android’s open-source code, and the update is now visible on the official Android Source website. Starting in 2026, Google will publish new source code to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) only twice a year.

Google will only publish AOSP source code twice a year starting 2026

A new banner on Android Source website confirms that future AOSP releases will land in Q2 and Q4 (h/t Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority). Google says the decision is tied to its trunk-stable development model, which focuses on maintaining a single, continuously developed codebase rather than juggling multiple active branches.

For developers who build on or contribute to AOSP, Google is also recommending a shift in workflow. Instead of tracking the frequently changing aosp-main branch, developers are encouraged to use the android-latest-release manifest. This branch will always point to the most recent version of Android that’s been officially pushed to AOSP.

Until now, Google published AOSP source code four times a year, matching Android’s quarterly platform releases. With the new approach, only two releases will include full source code drops, specifically those that introduce meaningful platform or developer-facing changes. Smaller quarterly updates will no longer result in separate AOSP releases.

You might wonder whether this move affects Samsung. It doesn’t. Samsung doesn’t wait for public AOSP releases to build One UI. As a top-tier Android partner, it gets early, private access to Android platform code directly from Google. That pipeline exists regardless of when Google publishes source code publicly. So, cutting AOSP drops from four to two a year won’t slow Samsung down at all.

And for consumers, nothing changes at all.