Android (operating system)

**Android** is an operating system used in mobile devices. It is mostly used for smartphones, like Google's own Google Pixel, as well as by other phone manufacturers like HTC and Samsung.  It has also been used for tablets such as the Motorola, Xoom and Amazon Kindle Fire. A modified Linux kernel is used as Android's kernel.

Google says that over 1.3 million Android smartphones are sold every day. Most mobile phones run Android, making it the most popular mobile operating system.  It is also the most popular operating system in general.

It supports multitasking, and both two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics.

Security updates are not provided on versions older than Android 10. Newer versions receive security updates if the phone manufacturer supports them. Phones which have Android 10 and above receive security updates (like app updates) directly from Google Play.

The current stable version is Android 15, released on September 3, 2024.

## Android programs

Programs for Android, also called "apps" (short for applications), usually come from the Google Play Store. The Android programs have a file extension of .APK. On May 7, 2019, Kotlin replaced Java as Google’s preferred language for Android app development. Java is still supported, as is C++. Google states that "Android apps can be written using Kotlin, Java, and C++ languages". Other languages may also be used; such as Python and Go, and those languages and even C++ may have restrictions.  Large portions of the operating system itself are also written in Java. Over 2.6 million apps are available for Android in the Google Play Store. Some apps are distributed elsewhere.

Android, Inc. began working on the Android operating system in 2003. In the future, Google bought it in 2005. The software development kit (SDK) for Android OS was launched on November 12, 2007, while the beta version was made available on November 5, 2007.

In October 2008, the T-Mobile G1 (also known as the HTC Dream) became the first Android smartphone to be made available to the general market.

Google revealed in August 2019 that the candy scheme was coming to an end and that future Android releases would instead use numerical ordering.

Android 10 was the first Android version to be made available in numerical order.

## Android version numbers and names

Versions of Android have a number and have had a name based on confectioneries, up to and including Android 9 Pie, but since then it has mostly been a number, with the code name usually only being used internally and by Developers and manufacturers. The version numbers and names are:

|Name|Internal codename|Version number(s)|Release date|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Android 1.0|||September 23, 2008|||
|Android 1.1|Petit Four||February 9, 2009|||
|Android Cupcake|Cupcake||April 27, 2009|||
|Android Donut|Donut||September 15, 2009|||
|rowspan="3"|Android Eclair|rowspan="3"|Eclair||October 27, 2009|
||December 3, 2009|||||
||January 11, 2010|||||
|Android Froyo|Froyo||May 20, 2010|||
|rowspan="2"|Android Gingerbread|rowspan="2"|Gingerbread||December 6, 2010|
||February 9, 2011|||||
|rowspan="3"|Android Honeycomb|rowspan="3"|Honeycomb||February 22, 2011|
||May 10, 2011|||||
||July 15, 2011|||||
|rowspan="2"|Android Ice Cream Sandwich|rowspan="2"|Ice Cream Sandwich||October 18, 2011|
||December 16, 2011|||||
|rowspan="3"|Android Jelly Bean|rowspan="3"|Jelly Bean||July 9, 2012|
||November 13, 2012|||||
||July 24, 2013|||||
|rowspan="2"|Android KitKat|rowspan="2"|Key Lime Pie||October 31, 2013|
||June 25, 2014|||||
|rowspan="2"|Android Lollipop|rowspan="2"|Lemon Meringue Pie||November 12, 2014|
||March 9, 2015|||||
|Android Marshmallow|Macadamia Nut Cookie||October 5, 2015|||
|rowspan="2"|Android Nougat|rowspan="2"|New York Cheesecake||August 22, 2016|
||October 4, 2016|||||
|rowspan="2"|Android Oreo|rowspan="2"|Oatmeal Cookie||August 21, 2017|
||December 5, 2017|||||
|Android Pie|Pistachio Ice Cream||August 6, 2018|||
|Android 10|Quince Tart||September 3, 2019|||
|Android 11|Red Velvet Cake||September 8, 2020|||
|Android 12|Snow Cone||October 19, 2021|||
|Android 12L|Snow Cone v2||March 7, 2022|||
|Android 13|Tiramisu||August 15, 2022|||
|Android 14|Upside Down Cake||October 4, 2023|||
|Android 15|Vanilla Ice Cream||September 3, 2024|||
|Android 16|Baklava||November 19, 2024|||
|colspan="4"||||||

- Notes

## Related pages

- Operating system
- Linux
- Google Nexus
- Google Pixel
- Samsung Galaxy
- Androidland
- iOS

## Other websites

- Android Developers
- Android Open Source Project

## Infobox (os)

- **name**: IOS
- **logo**: Android 2023 3D logo and wordmark.svg
- **logo caption**: Wordmark and logo used since 2023
- **logo size**: ‘106’px
- **logo alt**: A flat robot head, a green semicircle with antennas and small holes for eyes.
- **screenshot size**: 214px
- **developer**: Various (mostly Google)
- **family**: Unix-like (modified Linux kernel)
- **working state**: Current
- **source model**: Open source software, Open source, freeware (most devices include proprietary software, proprietary components, such as Google Play Services or One UI)
- **latest preview version**: Android 16 Developer Preview 1
- **latest release version**: Android 15
- **marketing target**: Smartphones, tablet computers, smart TVs (Android TV), Android Auto and smartwatches (Wear OS)
- **programmed in**: Java (programming language), Java, Kotlin (programming language), Kotlin (UI), C (programming language), C (core), C++, Rust (programming language), Rust and others
- **language count**: 100+
- **update model**: Over-the-air update, Over-the-air
- **package manager**: apk (file format), APK-based
- **supported platforms**: ARM64 (previous versions were also compatible with ARMv7, x86, x86-64, MIPS and RISC-V; these architectures are still unofficially supported via third-party solutions)
- **kernel type**: Monolithic kernel, Monolithic (Linux kernel)
- **userland**: Bionic (software), Bionic libc, KornShell, mksh shell, Toybox as core utilities
- **ui**: Graphical user interface, Graphical (multi-touch)
- **support status**: Supported
- **other articles**: Android version history