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Android version history

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The version history of the Android mobile operating system began with the public release of its first beta on November 5, 2007. The first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released on September 23, 2008. The operating system is developed by Google on a yearly cycle since at least 2011.[1] New major releases are announced at Google I/O along with its first public beta to supported Google Pixel devices. The stable version is then released later in the year.

Overview

See also: Android software development

The development of Android started in 2003 by Android, Inc., which was purchased by Google in 2005.[2] There were at least two internal releases of the software inside Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) before the beta version was released.[3][4] The beta was released on November 5, 2007,[5][6] while the software development kit (SDK) was released on November 12, 2007.[7] Several public beta versions of the SDK were released.[8] These releases were done through software emulation as physical devices did not exist to test the operating system. Both the operating system itself and the SDK were released along with their source code, as free software under the Apache License.[9]

The first public release of Android 1.0 occurred with the release of the T-Mobile G1 (aka HTC Dream) in October 2008.[10] Android 1.0 and 1.1 were not released under specific code names.[11] 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.[12]

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.[13] 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.[14] Since then, a new major Android version has been released in the second half of each year, and apps must target it by August 31 of the following year for new apps, or November 1 for app updates.[15]

Name Internal codename[11] Version number(s) API level Initial stable release date Latest security patch date[16] Latest Google Play Services version[17][18] (release date)
Android 1.0 — Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0 1 September 23, 2008 — —
Android 1.1 Petit Four Old version, no longer maintained: 1.1 2 February 9, 2009
Android Cupcake Cupcake Old version, no longer maintained: 1.5 3 April 27, 2009
Android Donut Donut Old version, no longer maintained: 1.6 4 September 15, 2009
Android Eclair Eclair Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0 5 October 27, 2009
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0.1 6 December 3, 2009
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.1 7 January 11, 2010[19]
Android Froyo Froyo Old version, no longer maintained: 2.2 – 2.2.3 8 May 20, 2010 3.2.25 (October 2014)
Android Gingerbread Gingerbread Old version, no longer maintained: 2.3 – 2.3.2 9 December 6, 2010 10.0.84 (November 2016)
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.3.3 – 2.3.7 10 February 9, 2011
Android Honeycomb Honeycomb Old version, no longer maintained: 3.0 11 February 22, 2011
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.1 12 May 10, 2011
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.2 – 3.2.6 13 July 15, 2011
Android Ice Cream Sandwich Ice Cream Sandwich Old version, no longer maintained: 4.0 – 4.0.2 14 October 18, 2011 14.8.49 (February 2019)
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.0.3 – 4.0.4 15 December 16, 2011
Android Jelly Bean Jelly Bean Old version, no longer maintained: 4.1 – 4.1.2 16 July 9, 2012 21.33.56 (September 2021)
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.2 – 4.2.2 17 November 13, 2012
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.3 – 4.3.1 18 July 24, 2013
Android KitKat Key Lime Pie Old version, no longer maintained: 4.4 – 4.4.4 19 October 31, 2013 October 2017 23.30.13 (August 2023)
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.4W – 4.4W.2 20 June 25, 2014 ?
Android Lollipop Lemon Meringue Pie Old version, no longer maintained: 5.0 – 5.0.2 21 November 4, 2014[20] November 2017 23.37.17 (October 2023)
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.1 – 5.1.1 22 March 2, 2015[21] March 2018
Android Marshmallow Macadamia Nut Cookie Old version, no longer maintained: 6.0 – 6.0.1 23 October 2, 2015[22] August 2018
Android Nougat New York Cheesecake Old version, no longer maintained: 7.0 24 August 22, 2016 August 2019
Old version, no longer maintained: 7.1 – 7.1.2 25 October 4, 2016 October 2019
Android Oreo Oatmeal Cookie Old version, no longer maintained: 8.0 26 August 21, 2017 January 2021
Old version, no longer maintained: 8.1 27 December 5, 2017 October 2021
Android Pie Pistachio Ice Cream[23] Old version, no longer maintained: 9 28 August 6, 2018 January 2022
Android 10 Quince Tart[24] Old version, no longer maintained: 10 29 September 3, 2019 February 2023
Android 11 Red Velvet Cake[24] Old version, yet still maintained: 11 30 September 8, 2020 October 2023
Android 12 Snow Cone Old version, yet still maintained: 12 31 October 4, 2021
Android 12L Snow Cone v2 Old version, yet still maintained: 12.1[a] 32 March 7, 2022
Android 13 Tiramisu Old version, yet still maintained: 13 33 August 15, 2022
Android 14 Upside Down Cake[27] Current stable version: 14 34 October 4, 2023
Android 15 Vanilla Ice Cream[28] Future release: 15 TBA Q3 2024 — —
Legend:
Old version, not maintained
Old version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release
  1. ^ 12L launched as part of the March 2022 security update to supported Pixel devices. The factory images for March 2022 and subsequent updates display the version as 12.1.[25] The device's about page will still show the Android version as 12.[26]

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

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Android 1.1

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Android 1.5 Cupcake

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Android 1.6 Donut

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Android 2.0 Eclair

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Android 2.0.1 Eclair

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Android 2.1 Eclair

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Android 2.2 Froyo

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Android 2.3 Gingerbread

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Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread

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Android 3.0 Honeycomb

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Android 3.1 Honeycomb

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Android 3.2 Honeycomb

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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

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Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich

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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

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Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

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Android 4.3 Jelly Bean

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Android 4.4 KitKat

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Android 4.4W KitKat, with wearable extensions

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Android 5.0 Lollipop

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Android 5.1 Lollipop

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Android 6.0 Marshmallow

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Android 7.0 Nougat

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Android 7.1 Nougat

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Android 8.0 Oreo

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Android 8.1 Oreo

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Android 9 Pie

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Android 10

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Android 11

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Android 12

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Android 12L

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Android 13

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Android 14

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Hardware requirements

See also: Android (operating system) § Hardware

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[a] and MIPS[b] architectures also officially supported in later versions of Android, but MIPS support has since been deprecated and support was removed in NDK r17.[31]

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.[32]

In 2012, Android devices with Intel processors began to appear, including phones[33] and tablets. While gaining support for 64-bit platforms, Android was first made to run on 64-bit x86 and then on ARM64.[34][35] 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).[36][c] The recommendation for Android 4.4 is to have at least 512 MB of RAM,[37] 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.[38] Android 4.4 requires a 32-bit ARMv7, MIPS or x86 architecture processor,[39] together with an OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics processing unit (GPU).[40] 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[41]). Some applications may explicitly require a certain version of the OpenGL ES, and suitable GPU hardware is required to run such applications.[40] In 2021, Android was ported to RISC-V.[42] In 2021, Qualcomm said it will support more updates.[43]

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Lowest supported x86 generation is the P6 microarchitecture, also called i686.[29]
  2. ^ Supported is revision 1 of MIPS32[30] and revision 6 for 64-bit MIPS64[29]
  3. ^ 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), etc.

References

  1. ^ Fedewa, Joe (January 12, 2023). "What's the Latest Version of Android?". How-To Geek. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  2. ^ Elgin, Ben (August 17, 2005). "Google Buys Android for Its Mobile Arsenal". Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg. Archived from the original on February 27, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
  3. ^ "A History of Pre-Cupcake Android Codenames". Android Police. June 12, 2013. Archived from the original on June 12, 2013 – via Google+.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) See post by Dianne Hackborn
  4. ^ "Dan Morrill". Google+. January 2, 2013. Archived from the original on January 19, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  5. ^ "Google Launches Android, an Open Mobile Platform". Google Operating System. November 5, 2007. Archived from the original on September 30, 2011.
  6. ^ "Live Google's gPhone Open handset alliance conference call" (transcript). Gizmodo. November 5, 2007. Archived from the original on February 7, 2013. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  7. ^ "Google releases Android SDK". MacWorld. November 12, 2007. Archived from the original on August 22, 2010. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  8. ^ "SDK Archives". Android Developers. Archived from the original on March 3, 2015. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  9. ^ Paul, Ryan (November 6, 2007). "Why Google chose the Apache Software License over GPLv2 for Android". Ars Technica. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  10. ^ "The history of Android: Android 1.0—introducing Google Apps and actual hardware". Ars Technica. June 16, 2014. Archived from the original on March 10, 2015. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
  11. ^ a b "Codenames, Tags, and Build Numbers". Android Open Source Project. Google. Retrieved June 1, 2022.
  12. ^ "A History of Pre-Cupcake Android Codenames". Android Police. September 17, 2012. Archived from the original on August 25, 2013. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
  13. ^ "A pop of color and more: updates to Android's brand". Google. August 22, 2019.
  14. ^ Cunningham, Edward (December 19, 2017). "Improving app security and performance on Google Play for years to come". Android Developers Blog. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  15. ^ "Target API level requirements for Google Play apps - Play Console Help". Google Support. Retrieved October 24, 2023.
  16. ^ "Android Security Bulletins". Android Open Source Project. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
  17. ^ "Google Play services by Google LLC". APKMirror. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
  18. ^ "Google Play services". APKPure. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  19. ^ "Android 2.1 SDK".
  20. ^ "refs/tags/android-5.0.0_r1 – platform/system/core – Git at Google". android.googlesource.com.
  21. ^ "refs/tags/android-5.1.0_r1 – platform/system/core – Git at Google". android.googlesource.com.
  22. ^ "refs/tags/android-6.0.0_r1 – platform/system/core – Git at Google". android.googlesource.com.
  23. ^ Parker, Steven. "Android P being referred to as 'Pistachio Ice Cream' internally at Google". Neowin. Neowin LLC. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  24. ^ a b Gartenberg, Chaim (July 23, 2020). "Even Android 11 is cake". The Verge. Vox Media, LLC. Retrieved July 27, 2021. Burke revealed last year that Android Q had been internally known as "Quince Tart"
  25. ^ "Factory Images for Nexus and Pixel Devices". Google Developers. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  26. ^ Amadeo, Ron (March 7, 2022). "Android 12L is official as "Android 12.1," rolling out now to Pixel phones". Ars Technica. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  27. ^ Bradshaw, Kyle (April 22, 2022). "Android 14 gets official internal codename… Upside Down Cake". 9to5Google. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  28. ^ Cantisano, Timi (March 3, 2023). "Android 15 dessert-themed codename revealed as 'Vanilla Ice Cream'". XDA Developers. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
  29. ^ a b "The syntax of the Android.mk build file". developer.android.com. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  30. ^ Shah, Agam (March 23, 2015). "Imagination floats sub-$100 MIPS tablet running Firefox OS". PC World. IDG. Archived from the original on June 5, 2015. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  31. ^ "ABI Management". Android Developers. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  32. ^ "Android Developers: Android Compatibility". android.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
  33. ^ Warman, Matt (June 7, 2012). "Orange San Diego Intel Android mobile phone review". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
  34. ^ "Android Lollipop". Android Developers. Archived from the original on November 25, 2014. Retrieved November 24, 2014. It's supported on ARM, x86, and MIPS architectures and is fully 64-bit compatible.
  35. ^ "How to check which of the Processor, ARM, ARM64 or x86, powers your smartphone". April 16, 2016. Archived from the original on November 27, 2016.
  36. ^ "Android 7.1 Compatibility Definition" (PDF). Retrieved August 23, 2017.
  37. ^ "Android KitKat". Android Developers Portal. android.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
  38. ^ "7.6.1". Android Compatibility Definition Document (PDF) (4.4 ed.). November 27, 2013. p. 33. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2014. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  39. ^ Shah, Agam (December 1, 2011). "Google's Android 4.0 ported to x86 processors". Computerworld. International Data Group. Archived from the original on January 24, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
  40. ^ a b "Android Developers: Graphics". Android Developers. Archived from the original on October 10, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  41. ^ "Vulkan on Android". NVIDIA Developer. February 10, 2016. Retrieved March 21, 2018. Vulkan 1.1 is available as a Developer Preview OTA for the NVIDIA SHIELD TV.
  42. ^ "Android has been ported to a RISC-V board". xda-developers. January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  43. ^ "Future Android phones may get 4 years of updates, thanks to Google and Qualcomm". Android Police. December 16, 2020.
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