this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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Privacy
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I mean it can be both? Android has been awesome for many years precisely because it was open source. It's the reason we have had and continue to have so many custom ROMs. It was open source so it could be run by Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc. while Google collected all the data. It also meant that independent developers could create their own OSs without any of Google's BS in it. And that was fine, because us nerds are not even 1% of the market. But something seems to have changed because they're very suddenly clawing back control of the entire OS. Pretty much the beginning of the end for private mobile devices. This trend is likely to continue faster than the community can create workarounds.
The open source thing is largely a myth, though. AOSP is what's open source. The version of Android on Pixel phones and Nexus before them was forked from that and bundles a lot of closed source stuff, like Google Play Services, Gmail, and more. But it's close enough to AOSP that devs can target it and it should run on most/all Android forks.
So then Samsung and others take AOSP and they fork it and make their own OS that is based on Android. They are required per licensing to use Android branding if they want Play Store access. There are other rules, like Chrome and/or Google has to be on the main launcher page, Play Services has to be included... if they don't play by the rules, they can still fork Android, they just can't use the name Android... like Fire OS and Switch OS. (It's unclear if modern Switches use any Android code. Before they were released they were rumored to have forked Android. Switches absolutely do not run Android apps, but the OS borrows several cues from Android design language.)
You say it's a myth, then say it's not a myth. Which one is it? Is it open source or not?
AOSP and production versions of Android (what's on the Pixel) are not the same thing.
Yes, that's what I've been trying to tell you.