Android (operating system)

Android is an operating system for 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. 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 two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics.

Android programs
Programs for Android, also called "apps", come from the Google Play Store. The Android programs have an extension of .apk. Google states that "Android apps can be written using Kotlin, Java, and C++ languages", while using other languages are also possible; 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. There are over 2.6 million apps available for Android in the Google Play Store. Some apps are distributed elsewhere.

Android version numbers and names
Each version of Android has both a number and a name based on confectioneries. The version numbers and names are:


 * 1.1: (No codename)
 * 1.1: Petit Four
 * 1.5: Cupcake
 * 1.6: Donut
 * 2.0 and 2.1: Eclair
 * 2.2: Froyo (FROzen YOgurt)
 * 2.3: Gingerbread
 * 3.x: Honeycomb (a tablet-only version)
 * 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich
 * 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3: Jelly Bean
 * 4.4: KitKat
 * 5.0 and 5.1: Lollipop
 * 6.0 and 6.0.1: Marshmallow
 * 7.0 and 7.1: Nougat
 * 8.0: Oreo
 * 9.0: Pie

Related pages

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

Other websites

 * Android (smartphone) -Citizendium