Difference between "AOSP ATD" and "Default Android System Image"?

Question

Have to test a build on non-google-play images. I see the current SDK offers two flavors of non-google images.

"AOSP ATD" and "Default Android System Image"?

What are the differences?

Only place mentioning them is: https://developer.android.com/reference/tools/gradle-api/8.3/null/com/android/build/api/dsl/ManagedVirtualDevice#getSystemImageSource()

which doesn't even mention the "default system" one....

"aosp" will use the Android Open Source Project images for the device. "aosp-atd" will use automated test device image from the Android Open Source Project.

is "Default Android System Image" the old "AOSP (sans-atd)" one?

Answer 1

My interpretation is that there are two orthogonal criteria:

• images with or without Google services
• images meant for normal development or for automated testing.

The Automated Test Device (ATD) system image is designed to consume less CPU and memory by removing components that normally do not affect the running of your app’s instrumented tests, such as the SystemUI, Settings app, bundled apps like Gmail, Google Maps, etc., and some other components. (https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2021/10/whats-new-in-scalable-automated-testing.html)

Thus the "Default Android System Image" is without Google services for normal development. "AOSP ATD" images are without Google services for automated testing. Similarly the images with Google services exist either for normal development of for automated testing.