AOSP is open source, whereas GMS is not.
Instead, Google licenses GMS to gear manufacturers for free, provided they adhere to specific terms and conditions.
Some of the companies with a GMS agreement include Samsung, Xiaomi, and OnePlus.
According to Google, its current two-pronged development approach creates challenges for both the company and its partners.
Additionally, merging code between the two branches reportedly introduces errors a problem the new policy aims to resolve.
Google asserts that the change is not intended to hinder third-party developers but rather to streamline the development process.
For end users, the policy shift is unlikely to have any noticeable impact.
However, developers may face some inconvenience due to fewer public source code releases for certain Android components.
