Alpha – In this( Android 1.0) was the first versions of Android operating System by Google. It has basic functionality with a simple browser and other Google apps like Gmail, Maps and YouTube.
Beta – Later on with Android 1.1 few more functionality added, the API changes from Level 1 in Android 1.0 to Level 2. It supports attachment with MMS.
Cupcake – Cupcake was Android second version with new features as well as the Android framework API updated. It was Android 1.5 with on Screen Keyboard , Bluetooth and Updated UI for applications.
Donut – It was Android 1.6 nicknamed as DONUT. It added support for CDMA , additional screen sizes, talk to speech engine and battery indicator.
Eclair – Android 2.0-2.1 as like other versions this also come up with a nickname as ECLAIR and lot more functions & features. It come up with Bluetooth 2.1 , live wallpaper, HTML 5 support, ability to search sms & mms, flash support, digital zoom and more camera features
Froyo – Android version 2.2-2.2.3 introduced with USB tethering & WiFi hotspot functionality and apps can now be installed on memory card. Support Adobe flash, increased speed and performance of applications with new features.
Gingerbread – Gingerbread (Android 2.3-2.3.7) introduced with updated User Interface which provide more ease to use.
Features are like sensors, multiple cameras(Front & back), virtual keyboard, better text suggestion, voice input capability and press hold copy paste capability. Honeycomb – This Android platform Honeycomb was designed for large screens like
tablets so interface elements like virtual keyboard optimized for bigger screen. Home screen is optimized, tabs are introduced in browser with additional incognito mode and video chat & Gtalk is supported.
Ice Cream Sandwich –Ice Cream sandwich come in 2011 bringing all new look. It gives more ease to user like user can quickly swipe to close the apps, new gallery layout and built in photo editor.
Jelly Bean – Google made Operating System more responsive with Jelly Bean and introduces file sharing with Android Beam.
Restricted profile, Dial Pad complete, supported other languages like Hindi, changed camera UI.
KitKat – Kitkat come up in 2013 with API Level 19. It has wireless printing capability, new dailer id, chrome webview and screen recording.
Lollipop – Android version 5.0-5.1.1 come up with improved RAM and battery management. Further restyling through Material design, no interrupts feature, unlock phone through Bluetooth trusted devices, print previews and smart lock feature.
Marshmallow – Marshmallow was released in year 2015, come up with smarter battery and doze mode (it prevents certain task from running if the phone being setting idle), Now On Tap, better privacy settings, easier to upgrade phone, Fingerprint sensor and built in visual voice mail.
Nougat – Android Nougat was made official in 2016 with updated emoji, 72 newly added, multi window view (switch between apps with double tap), smarter battery with data saver mode, more secured and high quality virtual reality
with new dimensions.
9 Pie - Android is newly released version of the Android. It is powered by AI freatures.
Charts in this section provide
breakdowns of Android versions, based on devices accessing the Google Play Store in a seven-day period ending on
August 31, 2018. Therefore, these statistics exclude
devices running various Android forks
that do not access the Google Play Store, such as Amazon's Fire tablets.
Version
|
Code
name
|
Release
date
|
API
level
|
Runtime
|
Distribution
|
First
devices to run version
|
9.0
|
Pie
|
August 6, 2018
|
28
|
ART
|
N/A
|
Essential Phone,
Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Nokia 7 Plus, OnePlus 6, Oppo R15 Pro, Sony Xperia XZ2, Vivo X21UD,
Vivo X21,
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S
|
8.1
|
Oreo
|
December 5, 2017
|
27
|
ART
|
3.2%
|
Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X
|
8.0
|
August 21, 2017
|
26
|
ART
|
11.4%
|
N/A
|
|
7.1
|
Nougat
|
October 4, 2016
|
25
|
ART
|
10.5%
|
Pixel, Pixel XL
|
7.0
|
August 22, 2016
|
24
|
ART
|
20.3%
|
Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P
|
|
Marshmallow
|
October 5, 2015
|
23
|
ART
|
22.7%
|
||
5.1
|
Lollipop
|
March 9, 2015
|
22
|
ART
|
15.4%
|
Android One
|
5.0
|
November 3, 2014
|
21
|
ART 2.1.0
|
3.8%
|
Nexus 6, Nexus 9
|
|
4.4
|
KitKat
|
October 31, 2013
|
19
|
Dalvik (and
ART 1.6.0)
|
8.6%
|
Nexus 5
|
4.3
|
Jelly Bean
|
July 24, 2013
|
18
|
Dalvik
|
0.5%
|
Nexus 7 2013
|
4.2
|
November 13, 2012
|
17
|
Dalvik
|
1.8%
|
Nexus 4, Nexus 10
|
|
4.1
|
July 9, 2012
|
16
|
Dalvik
|
1.2%
|
Nexus 7
|
|
4.0
|
Ice Cream
Sandwich
|
October 19, 2011
|
15
|
Dalvik
|
0.3%
|
Galaxy Nexus
|
2.3
|
Gingerbread
|
February 9, 2011
|
10
|
Dalvik 1.4.0
|
0.3%
|
Nexus S
|
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still supported
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release
|
||||||
As of August 2018, 77.1% of devices
have OpenGL ES 3.0 or higher.
Software stack
Android's architecture diagram
On top of the Linux kernel, there are the middleware, libraries and APIs written in C, and application software running on an application framework which includes Java-compatible libraries. Development of the Linux kernel continues independently of Android's other source code projects.
Until version 5.0, Android used Dalvik as a process virtual machine with trace-based just-in-time (JIT) compilation to run Dalvik "dex-code" (Dalvik Executable), which is usually translated from the Java bytecode. Following the trace-based JIT principle, in addition to interpreting the majority of application code, Dalvik performs the compilation and native execution of select frequently executed code segments ("traces") each time an application is launched.Android 4.4 introduced Android Runtime (ART) as a new runtime environment, which uses ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation to entirely compile the application bytecode into machine code upon the installation of an application. In Android 4.4, ART was an experimental feature and not enabled by default; it became the only runtime option in the next major version of Android, 5.0.
For its Java library, the Android platform uses a subset of the now discontinued Apache Harmony project. In December 2015, Google announced that the next version of Android would switch to a Java implementation based on the OpenJDK project.
Android's standard C library, Bionic, was developed by Google specifically for Android, as a derivation of the BSD's standard C library code. Bionic itself has been designed with several major features specific to the Linux kernel. The main benefits of using Bionic instead of the GNU C Library (glibc) or uClibc are its smaller runtime footprint, and optimization for low-frequency CPUs. At the same time, Bionic is licensed under the terms of the BSD licence, which Google finds more suitable for the Android's overall licensing model.
Aiming for a different licensing model, toward the end of 2012, Google switched the Bluetooth stack in Android from the GPL-licensed BlueZ to the Apache-licensed BlueDroid.
Android does not have a native X Window System by default, nor does it support the full set of standard GNU libraries. This made it difficult to port existing Linux applications or libraries to Android, until version r5 of the Android Native Development Kit brought support for applications written completely in C or C++. Libraries written in C may also be used in applications by injection of a small shim and usage of the JNI.
Since the release of Marshmallow, "Toybox", a collection of command line utilities (mostly for use by apps, as Android doesn't provide a command line interface by default), replaced a similar "Toolbox" collection found in previous Android versions.
Android has another operating system, Trusty OS, within it, as a part of "Trusty" "software components supporting a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) on mobile devices." "Trusty and the Trusty API are subject to change. [..] Applications for the Trusty OS can be written in C/C++ (C++ support is limited), and they have access to a small C library. [..] All Trusty applications are single-threaded; multithreading in Trusty userspace currently is unsupported. [..] Third-party application development is not supported in" the current version, and software running on the OS and processor for it, run the "DRM framework for protected content. [..] There are many other uses for a TEE such as mobile payments, secure banking, full-disk encryption, multi-factor authentication, device reset protection, replay-protected persistent storage, wireless display ("cast") of protected content, secure PIN and fingerprint processing, and even malware detection
