Short description: History of the mobile operating system Android by Google

The version history of the Android mobile operating system began with the public release of the Android beta on November 5, 2007. The first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released on September 23, 2008. Android is developed by Google in which new major releases are announced at Google I/O along with its first public beta to supported Google Pixel devices and its stable version released later in the year.

Overview

The development of Android started in 2003 by Android, Inc., which was purchased by Google in 2005.[1] There were at least two internal releases of the software inside Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) before the beta version was released.[2][3] The beta was released on November 5, 2007,[4][5] while the software development kit (SDK) was released on November 12, 2007.[6] Several public beta versions of the SDK were released.[7] These releases were done through software emulation as physical devices did not exist to test the operating system.

The first public release of Android 1.0 occurred with the release of the T-Mobile G1 (aka HTC Dream) in October 2008.[8] Android 1.0 and 1.1 were not released under specific code names.[9] The code names "Astro Boy" and "Bender" were tagged internally on some of the early pre-1.0 milestone builds and were never used as the actual code names of the 1.0 and 1.1 releases of the OS.[10]

The project manager, Ryan Gibson, conceived using a confectionery-themed naming scheme for public releases, starting with Android 1.5 Cupcake. Google announced in August 2019 they were ending the confectionery theming scheme to use numerical ordering for future versions.[11] The first release under the numerical order format was Android 10, which was released September 2019.

In 2017, Google announced that Google Play would begin to require apps to target a recent Android version.[12] The current target API level that new apps and app updates must target is Android 11 (API level 30).[13] New apps must target Android 12 (API level 31) in August 2022. App updates will be required to target API level 31 in November 2022.

Name Internal codename[9] Version number(s) API
level 		Initial stable
release date 		Latest security patch date[14] Latest Google Play Services version[15]
(release date)
Android 1.0 N/A 1.0 1 September 23, 2008 N/A N/A
Android 1.1 Petit Four 1.1 2 February 9, 2009
Android Cupcake Cupcake 1.5 3 April 27, 2009
Android Donut Donut 1.6 4 September 15, 2009
Android Eclair Eclair 2.0 5 October 27, 2009
2.0.1 6 December 3, 2009
2.1 7 January 11, 2010[16]
Android Froyo Froyo 2.2 – 2.2.3 8 May 20, 2010 3.2.25 (October 2014)
Android Gingerbread Gingerbread 2.3 – 2.3.2 9 December 6, 2010 10.0.84 (November 2016)
2.3.3 – 2.3.7 10 February 9, 2011
Android Honeycomb Honeycomb 3.0 11 February 22, 2011
3.1 12 May 10, 2011
3.2 – 3.2.6 13 July 15, 2011
Android Ice Cream Sandwich Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 – 4.0.2 14 October 18, 2011 14.8.49 (February 2019)
4.0.3 – 4.0.4 15 December 16, 2011
Android Jelly Bean Jelly Bean 4.1 – 4.1.2 16 July 9, 2012 21.33.56 (September 2021)
4.2 – 4.2.2 17 November 13, 2012
4.3 – 4.3.1 18 July 24, 2013
Android KitKat Key Lime Pie 4.4 – 4.4.4 19 October 31, 2013 October 2017 22.33.15 (September 2022)
4.4W – 4.4W.2 20 June 25, 2014 ?
Android Lollipop Lemon Meringue Pie 5.0 – 5.0.2 21 November 4, 2014[17] November 2017
5.1 – 5.1.1 22 March 2, 2015[18] March 2018
Android Marshmallow Macadamia Nut Cookie 6.0 – 6.0.1 23 October 2, 2015[19] August 2018
Android Nougat New York Cheesecake 7.0 24 August 22, 2016 August 2019
7.1 – 7.1.2 25 October 4, 2016 October 2019
Android Oreo Oatmeal Cookie 8.0 26 August 21, 2017 January 2021
8.1 27 December 5, 2017 October 2021
Android Pie Pistachio Ice Cream[20] 9 28 August 6, 2018 January 2022
Android 10 Quince Tart[21] 10 29 September 3, 2019 September 2022
Android 11 Red Velvet Cake[21] 11 30 September 8, 2020
Android 12 Snow Cone 12 31 October 4, 2021
Android 12L Snow Cone v2 12.1[lower-alpha 1] 32 March 7, 2022
Android 13 Tiramisu[23] 13 33 August 15, 2022
{{{2}}}

Version history

The following tables show the release dates and key features of all Android operating system updates to date, listed chronologically by their official application programming interface (API) levels.

Android 1.0

Template:Android version table

Android 1.1

Template:Android version table

Android 1.5 Cupcake

Template:Android version table

Android 1.6 Donut

Template:Android version table

Android 2.0 Eclair

Template:Android version table

Android 2.0.1 Eclair

Template:Android version table

Android 2.1 Eclair

Template:Android version table

Android 2.2 Froyo

Template:Android version table

Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Template:Android version table

Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread

Template:Android version table

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Template:Android version table

Android 3.1 Honeycomb

Template:Android version table

Android 3.2 Honeycomb

Template:Android version table

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Template:Android version table

Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich

Template:Android version table

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Template:Android version table

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

Template:Android version table

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean

Template:Android version table

Android 4.4 KitKat

Template:Android version table

Android 4.4W KitKat, with wearable extensions

Template:Android version table

Android 5.0 Lollipop

Template:Android version table

Android 5.1 Lollipop

Template:Android version table

Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Template:Android version table

Android 7.0 Nougat

Template:Android version table

Android 7.1 Nougat

Template:Android version table

Android 8.0 Oreo

Template:Android version table

Android 8.1 Oreo

Template:Android version table

Android 9 Pie

Template:Android version table

Android 10

Template:Android version table

Android 11

Template:Android version table

Android 12

Template:Android version table

Android 12L

Template:Android version table

Android 13

Template:Android version table

Hardware requirements

The main hardware platform for Android is the 64-bit ARM architecture (i.e. ARMv8-A; previously the 32-bit ARMv7 architecture was supported and first ARMv5), with x86[lower-alpha 2] and MIPS[lower-alpha 3] architectures also officially supported in later versions of Android, but MIPS support has since been deprecated and support was removed in NDK r17.[26]

Android 1.0 through 1.5 required a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus camera. This was relaxed to a fixed-focus camera with Android 1.6.[27]

In 2012, Android devices with Intel processors began to appear, including phones[28] and tablets. While gaining support for 64-bit platforms, Android was first made to run on 64-bit x86 and then on ARM64.[29][30] Since Android 5.0 Lollipop, 64-bit variants of all platforms are supported in addition to the 32-bit variants.

Requirements for the minimum amount of RAM for devices running Android 7.1 depend on screen size and density and type of CPU, ranging from 816 MB–1.8 GB for 64-bit and 512 MB–1.3 GB for 32-bit meaning in practice 1 GB for the most common type of display (while minimum for Android watch is 416 MB).[31][lower-alpha 4] The recommendation for Android 4.4 is to have at least 512 MB of RAM,[32] while for "low RAM" devices 340 MB is the required minimum amount that does not include memory dedicated to various hardware components such as the baseband processor.[33] Android 4.4 requires a 32-bit ARMv7, MIPS or x86 architecture processor,[34] together with an OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics processing unit (GPU).[35] Android supports OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.2 and since Android 7.0 Vulkan (and version 1.1 available for some devices[36]). Some applications may explicitly require a certain version of the OpenGL ES, and suitable GPU hardware is required to run such applications.[35] In 2021, Android was ported to RISC-V.[37] In 2021, Qualcomm said it will support more updates.[38]

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ 12L launched as part of the March 2022 update to supported Pixel devices. The factory images for March 2022 and subsequent updates displays the version as 12.1.[22] However, the software information on supported devices continues to show Android version 12 with no indication of the update.
  2. ↑ Lowest supported x86 generation is the P6 microarchitecture, also called i686.[24]
  3. ↑ Supported is revision 1 of MIPS32[25] and revision 6 for 64-bit MIPS64[24]
  4. ↑ Disk-based memory (hard drives), solid state disk devices such as USB drives, DVD-based storage, bit rates, bus speeds, and network speeds, are specified using decimal meanings for K (10001), M (10002), G (10003), ...

References

  1. ↑ Elgin, Ben (August 17, 2005). "Google Buys Android for Its Mobile Arsenal". Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2005/tc20050817_0949_tc024.htm. 
  2. ↑ "Dianne Hackborn". Google+. September 1, 2012. https://plus.google.com/+AndroidPolice/posts/MwDsoxDJ9qQ. 
  3. ↑ "Dan Morrill". Google+. January 2, 2013. https://plus.google.com/112413860260589530492/posts/WrBh6fsChfH. 
  4. ↑ "Google Launches Android, an Open Mobile Platform". Google Operating System. November 5, 2007. http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/11/google-launches-android-open-mobile.html. 
  5. ↑ "Live Google's gPhone Open handset alliance conference call" (transcript). Gizmodo. November 5, 2007. https://gizmodo.com/318561/live-googles-gphone-open-handset-alliance-conference-call. 
  6. ↑ "Google releases Android SDK". MacWorld. November 12, 2007. https://www.macworld.com/article/61005/2007/11/androidsdk.html. 
  7. ↑ "SDK Archives". http://developer.android.com/sdk/older_releases.html. 
  8. ↑ "The history of Android: Android 1.0—introducing Google Apps and actual hardware". Ars Technica. June 16, 2014. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/building-android-a-40000-word-history-of-googles-mobile-os/6/. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Codenames, Tags, and Build Numbers". Google. https://source.android.com/setup/start/build-numbers. 
  10. ↑ "A History of Pre-Cupcake Android Codenames". September 17, 2012. http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/09/17/a-history-of-pre-cupcake-android-codenames/. 
  11. ↑ "A pop of color and more: updates to Android's brand". Google. August 22, 2019. https://www.blog.google/products/android/evolving-android-brand/. 
  12. ↑ Cunningham, Edward (December 19, 2017). "Improving app security and performance on Google Play for years to come". https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/12/improving-app-security-and-performance.html. 
  13. ↑ "Meet Google Play's target API level requirement". https://developer.android.com/google/play/requirements/target-sdk. 
  14. ↑ "Android Security Bulletins". https://source.android.com/security/bulletin. 
  15. ↑ "Google Play services by Google LLC" (in en). https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-services/. 
  16. ↑ "Android 2.1 SDK". https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2010/01/android-21-sdk.html. 
  17. ↑ "refs/tags/android-5.0.0_r1 – platform/system/core – Git at Google". https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/refs/tags/android-5.0.0_r1. 
  18. ↑ "refs/tags/android-5.1.0_r1 – platform/system/core – Git at Google". https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/refs/tags/android-5.1.0_r1. 
  19. ↑ "refs/tags/android-6.0.0_r1 – platform/system/core – Git at Google". https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/refs/tags/android-6.0.0_r1. 
  20. ↑ Parker, Steven. "Android P being referred to as 'Pistachio Ice Cream' internally at Google". Neowin LLC. https://www.neowin.net/news/android-p-being-referred-to-as-pistachio-ice-cream-internally-at-google/. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Gartenberg, Chaim (July 23, 2020). "Even Android 11 is cake". Vox Media, LLC. https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2020/7/23/21336209/android-11-r-red-velvet-cake-internal-code-name-dessert-google. "Burke revealed last year that Android Q had been internally known as "Quince Tart"" 
  22. ↑ "Factory Images for Nexus and Pixel Devices". https://developers.google.com/android/images. 
  23. ↑ "13 Developer Preview | Android 13" (in en). https://developer.android.com/about/versions/13. 
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "The syntax of the Android.mk build file". http://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/android_mk.html. 
  25. ↑ Shah, Agam (March 23, 2015). "Imagination floats sub-$100 MIPS tablet running Firefox OS". PC World (IDG). http://www.pcworld.com/article/2900912/imagination-floats-sub100-mips-tablet-running-firefox-os.html. 
  26. ↑ "ABI Management" (in en). https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/abis.html#mips64. 
  27. ↑ "Android Developers: Android Compatibility". http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/compatibility.html. 
  28. ↑ Warman, Matt (June 7, 2012). "Orange San Diego Intel Android mobile phone review". The Daily Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phone-reviews/9314362/Orange-San-Diego-Intel-Android-mobile-phone-review.html. 
  29. ↑ "Android Lollipop". http://developer.android.com/about/versions/lollipop.html. "It's supported on ARM, x86, and MIPS architectures and is fully 64-bit compatible." 
  30. ↑ "How to check which of the Processor, ARM, ARM64 or x86, powers your smartphone". April 16, 2016. http://techbeasts.com/how-to-check-which-of-the-processor-arm-arm64-or-x86-powers-your-smartphone/. 
  31. ↑ "Android 7.1 Compatibility Definition". https://source.android.com/compatibility/7.1/android-7.1-cdd.pdf. 
  32. ↑ "Android KitKat". Android Developers Portal. android.com. http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html. 
  33. ↑ Android Compatibility Definition Document (4.4 ed.). November 27, 2013. p. 33. http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/source.android.com/en/us/compatibility/android-cdd.pdf. Retrieved February 26, 2014. 
  34. ↑ Shah, Agam (December 1, 2011). "Google's Android 4.0 ported to x86 processors". Computerworld. International Data Group. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222323/Google_s_Android_4.0_ported_to_x86_processors. 
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 "Android Developers: Graphics". http://source.android.com/devices/graphics.html. 
  36. ↑ "Vulkan on Android" (in en). NVIDIA Developer. February 10, 2016. https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-android. "Vulkan 1.1 is available as a Developer Preview OTA for the NVIDIA SHIELD TV." 
  37. ↑ "Android has been ported to a RISC-V board". January 21, 2021. https://www.xda-developers.com/android-risc-v-port/. 
  38. ↑ "Future Android phones may get 4 years of updates, thanks to Google and Qualcomm". December 16, 2020. https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/12/16/google-and-qualcomm-just-announced-huge-news-for-android-os-updates/. 

External links



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Engineering:Android_version_history&oldid=2144668"