Google Will Now Only Release Android Source Code Twice a Year

Google is changing its release schedule for the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) source code, starting in 2026. The company will now release new source code to AOSP only twice a year, in Q2 and Q4. This change is intended to ensure platform stability for the Android ecosystem and align with Android's trunk-stable development model. Previously, Google would release the source code for every quarterly Android release, resulting in four releases per year. The new schedule is designed to simplify development and eliminate the complexity of managing multiple code branches. Google's commitment to AOSP remains unchanged, and the company believes this new release schedule will help build a more robust and secure foundation for the Android ecosystem. Developers are advised to utilize the android-latest-release instead of aosp-main for building and contributing to AOSP. The aosp-latest-release manifest branch will always reference the most recent release pushed to AOSP, providing a more stable and secure code base. Google's process for security patch releases will not change, and the company will continue to publish security patches each month on a dedicated security-only branch. The change is now confirmed on the AOSP website, with a banner providing more information and guidance for developers.