Interesting Facts About Android You Should Know

By factober Updated on August 3, 2021

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Android is a smartphone operating system based on a modified Linux kernel. It’s an open-source software made to run on smartphones and tablets. Android is developed and maintained by the Open Handset Alliance.

Since, its inception, Android has been updated with a lot of features and improvements. In 2021, Android is now a full-grown smartphone operating system with a lot of potentials to block new player entry in the smartphone market.

Interesting facts about Android

Android is a smartphone operating system that runs on smartphones and tablets.
Android is free and open-source software.
Android source code is available under the Apache License.
Android source code is known as AOSP, Android Open Source Project.
Though Android is open-source its commercial releases include pre-installed proprietary software. E.g Google Play Store, Google Chrome, Google Play Services, etc.
70 percent of Android smartphones run Google’s ecosystem.
Android was initially released on September 23, 2008.
The current stable version is Android 11, released on September 8, 2020.
As of writing the latest Android 12 Developer Preview 3 has been released on April 21, 2021.
Amazon has developed its own Android-flavored mobile operating system known as Amazon Fire OS. It’s a proprietary software based on Open source Android. It is used in different commercial projects by Amazon, such as Amazon Fire tablet, Fire TV, and Amazon Echo.
LineageOS is an operating system for smartphones, tablet computers, and set-top boxes, based on Android with mostly free and open-source software. It is written in C, C++, Java, and Kotlin. Its source code available on both GitHub and GitLab.
The Android name, the Android logo, the Google Play brand, and other Google trademarks are the property of Google LLC and are not part of the assets available through the Android Open Source Project.
The Android source code has been used for developing different variants of it, such as game consoles, digital cameras, portable media players, and computers. Some notable examples are Android TV and Wear OS. It’s a version of Google’s Android operating system designed for smartwatches and other wearables.
Android software packages are shipped as installable .apk files. APK stands for Android Package. These software packages are popular as apps. These apps are distributed through different proprietary app stores, like Google Play Store, Samsung Galaxy Store, Huawei AppGallery, Cafe Bazaar, and GetJar.
Android apps can also be distributed over open-source platforms like Aptoide and F-Droid. Aptoide is a software “marketplace” application for installing mobile applications which runs on the Android operating system. In Aptoide, unlike the Android-default App Store, there is not a unique and centralized store; instead, each user manages their own store.
As of January 2021, the Google Play Store features over 3 million apps.
Android has been written in C, C++, and Java.
Android is available in over 100 languages.
Android Inc. was founded by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White in 2003 in Palo Alto.
Google acquired Android Inc. for about $50 million in July 2005.
After the takeover by Google, the key employees of Android Inc. joined Google as a part of the acquisition.
At Google, the team led by Rubin developed a smartphone device platform powered by the Linux kernel.
The first commercially available smartphone running Android was the HTC Dream, announced on September 23, 2008.
Android’s every major release is named in alphabetical order after a dessert or sugary treat. e.g., “Cupcake”, “Donut”, “Eclair”, and “Froyo”.
Google clarified in 2013, that, “since these devices make our lives so sweet, each Android version is named after a dessert”, at the time of the announcement of Android KitKat.
With the launching of the Nexus series of devices in 2010, Google lined up with different smartphone manufacturers to produce new devices and demonstrate new Android releases.
Google’s Nexus series devices played a pivotal role in Android’s history by introducing new software iterations and hardware standards across the board.
Android is known as bloat-free software because it provides timely updates.
In 2014, Google announced Android One, a set of “hardware reference models”. It will help device manufacturer’s to easily create high-end devices at a low cost.
In September 2014, Google announced the first set of Android One phones for release in India.
Google introduced the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones in October 2016, marketed as being the first phones made by Google.
The Pixel phones replaced the Nexus series, with a new generation of Pixel phones launched in October 2017.