5th February, 2023
What is Android?
Android is a popular Linux based open source operating system used in mobile phones, tables, smart watches and smart TVs.
- Android Inc. was founded in October 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Minor, Nick Sears and Chris White.
- Google acquired Android Inc. in 2005. and acquired its key employees.
- The first beta version of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) was released by Google in 2007, where as the first commercial version. Android 1.0 was released in September 2008.
- Anyone can customize the Android platforms.
- It is primarily used for touchscreen devices, cell phones, and tablets.
- It is occupied approximately 71% of shares in the worldwide mobile operating system market by 2022.
- Play Store or Google Play Store is a digital marketplace for distributing android applications. This service is developed and operated by Google.
- Android applications are usually developed in Java and Kotlin language using the Android Software Development Kit.
- Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) used to develop Android applications. Android Studio is based on IntelliJ IDEA.
Key Features
| Sr. No. | Features | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connectivity | GPS, GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, Bluetooth, WI-FI, EDGE,3G,NFC, LTE |
| 2 | Beautiful User Interface (UI) | Android OS provides beautiful and user friendly User Interface (UI) which enhances user interaction. |
| 3 | Storage | SQLite, Room Database |
| 4 | Media support | H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB, AAC, HE-AAC, AAC 5.1, MP3, MIDI, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP. |
| 5 | Messaging | SMS, MMS, C2DM (could to device messaging), GCM (Google could messaging) |
| 6 | Multitasking | You can perform multiple tasks simultaneously |
| 7 | Multitouch | Android provides multi-touch feature. |
Android Version
| Name | Version | API Level | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android 1.0 | 1 | 1 | September 23, 2008 |
| Android 1.1 | 1.1 | 2 | February 9, 2009 |
| Android Cupcake | 1.5 | 3 | April 27, 2009 |
| Android Donut | 1.6 | 4 | September 15, 2009 |
| Android Eclair | 2 | 5 | October 27, 2009 |
| 2.0.1 | 6 | December 3, 2009 | |
| 2.1 | 7 | January 11, 2010 | |
| Android Froyo | 2.2 – 2.2.3 | 8 | May 20, 2010 |
| Android Gingerbread | 2.3 – 2.3.2 | 9 | December 6, 2010 |
| 2.3.3 – 2.3.7 | 10 | February 9, 2011 | |
| Android Honeycomb | 3 | 11 | February 22, 2011 |
| 3.1 | 12 | May 10, 2011 | |
| 3.2 – 3.2.6 | 13 | July 15, 2011 | |
| Android Ice Cream Sandwich | 4.0 – 4.0.2 | 14 | October 18, 2011 |
| 4.0.3 – 4.0.4 | 15 | December 16, 2011 | |
| Android Jelly Bean | 4.1 – 4.1.2 | 16 | July 9, 2012 |
| 4.2 – 4.2.2 | 17 | November 13, 2012 | |
| 4.3 – 4.3.1 | 18 | July 24, 2013 | |
| Android KitKat | 4.4 – 4.4.4 | 19 | October 31, 2013 |
| 4.4W – 4.4W.2 | 20 | June 25, 2014 | |
| Android Lollipop | 5.0 – 5.0.2 | 21 | November 4, 2014 |
| 5.1 – 5.1.1 | 22 | March 2, 2015 | |
| Android Marshmallow | 6.0 – 6.0.1 | 23 | October 2, 2015 |
| Android Nougat | 7 | 24 | August 22, 2016 |
| 7.1 – 7.1.2 | 25 | October 4, 2016 | |
| Android Oreo | 8 | 26 | August 21, 2017 |
| 8.1 | 27 | December 5, 2017 | |
| Android Pie | 9 | 28 | August 6, 2018 |
| Android 10 | 10 | 29 | September 3, 2019 |
| Android 11 | 11 | 30 | September 8, 2020 |
| Android 12 | 12 | 31 | October 4, 2021 |
| Android 12L | 12.1 | 32 | March 7, 2022 |
| Android 13 | 13 | 33 | August 15, 2022 |
| Android 14 | 14 | 34 | Upcoming |