diff --git a/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/AbstractLauncher.java b/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/AbstractLauncher.java
index 44e69fc45dff..3524eb0afb51 100644
--- a/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/AbstractLauncher.java
+++ b/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/AbstractLauncher.java
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ public T setVerbose(boolean verbose) {
   public abstract SparkAppHandle startApplication(SparkAppHandle.Listener... listeners)
     throws IOException;
 
-  abstract T self();
+  protected abstract T self();
 
   private static class ArgumentValidator extends SparkSubmitOptionParser {
 
diff --git a/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/InProcessLauncher.java b/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/InProcessLauncher.java
index 6d726b4a69a8..0f36c1aadb9a 100644
--- a/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/InProcessLauncher.java
+++ b/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/InProcessLauncher.java
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ public SparkAppHandle startApplication(SparkAppHandle.Listener... listeners) thr
   }
 
   @Override
-  InProcessLauncher self() {
+  protected InProcessLauncher self() {
     return this;
   }
 
diff --git a/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/SparkLauncher.java b/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/SparkLauncher.java
index f86d40015bd2..8a952db5cfef 100644
--- a/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/SparkLauncher.java
+++ b/launcher/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/launcher/SparkLauncher.java
@@ -453,7 +453,7 @@ private ProcessBuilder createBuilder() throws IOException {
   }
 
   @Override
-  SparkLauncher self() {
+  protected SparkLauncher self() {
     return this;
   }