android.auto_generated_characteristics_rro Copy

A build-generated Runtime Resource Overlay (RRO) that targets the core framework package (shown on this site as "android"). An RRO changes the resource values of a target package at runtime without altering the target's code, so when the framework resolves an overlaid resource it gets the overlay's value instead. This package is not hand-written: when a target enables product-characteristics RRO generation, the Soong build emits an overlay containing only those of the target's resources that carry a PRODUCT_CHARACTERISTICS qualifier, and a small build tool writes the overlay's manifest with the package name "<target package>.auto_generated_characteristics_rro", marked static (android:isStatic="true") with a priority of 0. That is exactly the shape of the name seen here, with the target being the framework itself rather than an app. It is the framework-level sibling of the characteristics overlays for the phone app, the telephony provider and Companion Device Manager documented separately on this site. On this site it is seen signed by several Google keys and by OEM keys including Motorola, Nothing, Fairphone, Xiaomi, Lenovo, vivo, TCL, Crosscall, URAO and Zebra Technologies, because each build generates its own copy. It has no launcher icon, declares no permissions and is applied by the platform's overlay manager rather than opened by a user. Which resource values a given build puts in it depends on that build's product characteristics and could not be sourced, so this note describes the overlay's role rather than its contents. Version note: every observation recorded on this site is on API level 35 to 37 (Android 15 to 17), with version names of 15 to 17 and a minimum target SDK of 35, so in this sample it is a recent-build artefact rather than a long-standing one. Whether older releases generated a framework-targeted characteristics overlay of this name could not be sourced, so treat its presence as build-specific and version-specific. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use it has no part in enrolment, policy or anything a user interacts with. Disabling it would leave the characteristics-selected framework resources resolving to the values built into the framework itself; because those values are build-specific and unknown, and they are framework-wide rather than confined to one app, treat removal as caution and test on a single device rather than as routine cleanup.

• Change the value of an app's resources at runtime (RROs) - Android Open Source Project →
• Soong app.go - auto_generated_characteristics_rro generation from PRODUCT_CHARACTERISTICS (AOSP build source) →
• characteristics_rro_generator.py - emits the <target>.auto_generated_characteristics_rro manifest package (AOSP build/make source) →
• Package provenance for android.auto_generated_characteristics_rro - Android System App Database →

• Signed by Google's own signing key (the same key Google uses across devices), so it is a Google-provided preinstall that updates independently of the system image, though 17 different Google signing keys appear across the fleet.
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.