Google kicked off the new year with a pretty major announcement for the future of Android. After nearly 20 years, it’s cutting the frequency of source code releases in half. Starting this year, Google is shifting to a biannual schedule, and it could have some sneaky implications for you.
What exactly is changing?
Google’s changes revolve around the Android Open Source Project, commonly known as “AOSP.” This is the foundation that every Android manufacturer builds upon. From Google’s own Pixel series, to the Samsung Galaxy line, to phones that will never set foot in the US, like the Xiaomi 17 Pro. Google drops source code into AOSP, and manufacturers use it for their devices. It’s a process that’s been happening for over 20 years.
Throughout that time, Google has followed a predictable schedule of releasing the source code quarterly. However, starting in 2026, Google is reducing these code drops to only twice a year—the second and fourth quarters. According to Android Authority, the company says this shift is designed to align with its “trunk-stable” development model. In other words, Google wants its engineers working on one main “trunk” of code rather than a bunch of different branches. The hope is that this leads to fewer bugs and a more stable platform for everyone.
“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. For building and contributing to AOSP, we recommend utilizing android-latest-release instead of aosp-main. The aosp-latest-release manifest branch will always reference the most recent release pushed to AOSP. For more information, see Changes to AOSP.”
Previously, Google would drop the source code for each Android version’s initial release, QPR1, QPR2, and QPR3 releases. That meant new code roughly every three months. Now, there will only be code dropped for the initial release and the QPR2 release. Of course, the changes that normally would have been included in QPR1 and QPR3 will still be added, just later.
How will it affect you?
Now, the big question on Android users’ minds is how—if at all—this will affect them. For starters, if you’re a Pixel owner, you probably won’t notice anything. Google confirmed that the regular Quarterly Platform Releases (QPR) will still arrive on schedule. Your phone will keep getting new features and fixes throughout the year, just like it always has.
However, that may not be the case if you run a custom ROM on your Pixel or any other Android phone. The real impact will be felt by the community of developers who build custom ROMs like LineageOS and GrapheneOS. These projects rely on having up-to-date source code, but with only two releases a year, they’ll have to wait longer to integrate new platform-level changes.
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Prior to this announcement, Google had already been frustrating developers by dragging its feet on source code releases. Historically, it dropped the source code in AOSP at the same time it pushed out a stable release. But last year, Google waited more than a month after Android 16 QPR1 went stable to share the source code.
Beyond the longer wait times, some developers are worried about how much development is moving entirely in-house. Limiting the public exposure to only two big semi-annual drops makes it harder for the community to provide feedback on broken SDKs and other bugs before they’re already set in stone. As mentioned, Google hopes this will lead to more stability, but there are concerns to the contrary.
There’s also concern about this being another step toward a “walled garden” approach. By reducing the transparency of the development process, Google gains tighter control over the ecosystem. Smaller manufacturers who don’t have the same early-access privileges as big boys like Samsung might struggle to keep up with the latest Android features, which could further widen the gap between premium and budget devices.
You’ll still get updates
The big thing for Android users to keep in mind is that what Google shares with AOSP doesn’t necessarily translate to what you get on your phone. As mentioned, those QPR1 and QPR3 releases that won’t hit AOSP anymore will still arrive on Pixel devices.
This also applies to the all-important security updates. Google mentioned that the monthly security patches will continue to roll out exactly as they do now. However, some people worry that while the security bulletins will remain monthly, the actual integration of those fixes into AOSP might still hit bottlenecks under the new schedule.
Ultimately, this is Google evolving the way it manages a massive operating system. By reducing the number of public code drops, it hopes to focus on delivering a more refined product to partners and manufacturers. But while Google sounds hopeful and upbeat about all of this, the reality isn’t always positive—as we saw with proposed sideloading changes. Only time will tell how this truly changes Android.
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