I work on this with @mfonville and many others.
Open GApps is a Google Apps package developed by writing buildscripts which allow for the automated creation of new up-to-date packages automatically. The development process is completely open-source and the goal is to have multiple contributors involved, to secure and reinforce the sustainability of Open GApps development.
Some unique differences compared to other GApps packages:
- Supports Android versions with the latest apps long after others (most only support 5.1/6.0 now but we support all 4.4 and above)
- Supports all CPU types (arm, arm64, x86, and x86_64 [if a device is released])
- DPI-optimized support for all Google packages (not just Google Play services)
- New packages are auto-built daily if there are any updated apps)
- Strong compression, which allows for relatively small downloads of even the most complete packages (our biggest package would be ~1.2 GB without it, now only 622.09 MB)
- Several variations from a Google Super Package (based on all packages that ever shipped on a Google device), to a Stock package that equals the set of applications found on the most current and complete Nexus, to smaller, minimalist packages and an AROMA package that allows graphically selection of what to install
- Special 'for Stock ROM' mode that allows to update the Google Apps on Stock ROMs that conform to the original Google Nexus filesystem structure
