Very interesting in depth read, thanks for posting! Looking forward to interoperable Airdrop-like functionality, would love to airdrop between my iphone and linux laptop.

So much needless negativity. Not all features need to be for you.

But, given some users’ sensitivity to this, these types of features will always be optional for use by people who want them.

I would welcome a local model with good integration, I have use for it.

Tldr:

To balance AOSP’s open nature with its product development strategy, Google maintains two primary Android branches: the public AOSP branch and its internal development branch. The AOSP branch is accessible to anyone, while Google’s internal branch is restricted to companies with a Google Mobile Services (GMS)licensing agreement.

Beginning next week, all Android development will occur within Google’s internal branches, and the source code for changes will only be released when Google publishes a new branch containing those changes. As this is already the practice for most Android component changes, Google is simply consolidating its development efforts into a single branch.