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 Android Eclair Eclair  October 27, 2009  December 3, 2009  January 11, 2010 Android Froyo Froyo  May 20, 2010 Android Gingerbread Gingerbread  December 6, 2010  February 9, 2011 Android Honeycomb Honeycomb  February 22, 2011  May 10, 2011  July 15, 2011 Android Ice Cream Sandwich Ice Cream Sandwich  October 18, 2011  December 16, 2011 Android Jelly Bean Jelly Bean  July 9, 2012  November 13, 2012  July 24, 2013 Android KitKat Key Lime Pie  October 31, 2013  June 25, 2014 Android Lollipop Lemon Meringue Pie  November 12, 2014  March 9, 2015 Android Marshmallow Macadamia Nut Cookie  October 5, 2015 Android Nougat New York Cheesecake  August 22, 2016  October 4, 2016 Android Oreo 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 

Notes

 Related pages 
 Operating system
 Linux
 Google Nexus
 Google Pixel
 Samsung Galaxy
 Androidland
 iOS

 References 

 Other websites 


 Android Developers
 Android Open Source Project