The World of Android

 

If you’re alive and breathing, then there is no reason why you won’t recognize it. So, it is your beloved smartphone….

  

Around the World, most smartphones and, now, many other devices run on a neat little software platform called Android, which is the heart and soul of these devices. Android is a Linux-based operating system but Android did start out as a mobile operating system, and it is far beyond mobile now. These days, the smart feature appears in the television, watches, and tablets. Android has been widely accepted by almost all manufacturers of mobiles, tablets, televisions, smartwatches, etc. This is mainly because Android is very compatible and has an easy-to-use and recognizable user interface, i.e., similar placement and function of buttons.

It’s a Baby Android!

Android Inc was founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White with an intent to develop an advanced User Interface (UI) for digital cameras. In August 2005, Google acquired Android Incorporation, and the brains behind Android’s inception continued to play a crucial role in its development. After the acquisition by Google, Android’s progress reached its peak and grew multi fold through the successive version releases in the market. As mobile manufacturers increasingly started shifting to Android OS, its user base grew rapidly.

Android’s Success

 No consumer technology in history has evolved as smartphones have, and Android has been at the very center of that evolution. Today, Android is on nearly every device that isn’t Apple, edging out competitors along the way. The OS has undergone a pretty incredible transformation since its debut to achieve this position. Let’s take a look at its sweet journey to success.

The Android version list runs from A to P, with code names ranging from the earlier Aestro, Blender, Cupcake, etc. to the more recent ones such as Nougat, Oreo, and Pie.

The reason behind using names of sweets for versions is the vision of the Android founders, which is to make the user’s experience sweeter.

The Earliest Release

The Android era officially began in 2008, when T-Mobile G1 was launched in the United States.

The Android 1.0 didn’t have all the amazing features of Android that it is known for today. There were no on-screen keyboard, multi touch capability, or paid apps.

But the foundation was in place and a few lasting trademarks of the platform debuted on those very first G1s.

The Trademark Features

 These initial, yet trademark features, which are still present and loved today, include the pull-down notification window, Home screen widgets, better integration of Gmail.

The Initial Upgrades

The first upgrade to the Android platform came in February 2009, a little over three months after the launch of the G1. Version 1.1 wasn’t a revolution by any stretch of the imagination, but it validated Android’s ability to roll out updates over the air and make them nearly effortless for users to install.

The Sweet Beginnings

Starting with Android 1.5, Google started using its “sweet” naming convention. First came Cupcake (Android 1.5). Then, Donut. Followed by Éclair. Across these subsequent updates, several refinements were made in the UI. Some functionalities were added as well such as YouTube and Picasa upload features and the enticing live wallpapers.

CDMA Support introduced in Donut (Android 1.6) opened up possibilities of supporting a variety of screen resolutions and aspect ratios.

Honey…...It’s Comb

  

Honeycomb was, to say the least, an oddity. Google teamed-up with Motorola to showcase a variant of Android, targeted exclusively at tablets on a device called Xoom. Though Honeycomb hasn’t seen the levels of market traction that Google was probably aiming for, it previewing a fundamental redesign of Android’s user interface that would be more thoroughly built out in Android 4.0. This included a move from green to blue accents in Android Branding, Redesigned home screen and widget placement showing users a zoomed-out preview of all five panels, on a Honeycomb tablet, there was no need for dedicated physical buttons for Back, Home, Menu, and Search recent apps virtual button at the bottom of the screen producing a list of apps that were recently used. This helped users in multitasking., a permanent “action bar” placed at the top of each app that developers could use to show frequently accessed options, context menus, and so on.

 

 

Further Sweet Steps  

Over the next few updates, Ice-Cream Sandwich, jelly Bean, and KitKat, some more revolutionary changes were made such as further UI Updates such as Improves font and resolution, and removable notifications, user friendly features such as google now, and predictive text, quirky features such as face recognition screen unlock, Android Beam, and built-in colourful emoji characters.

Lollipop Is Popped 

Lollipop was introduced 3 years after the release of 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It was the first version to introduce a new design language called Material Design that changed the look and feel of apps across Android, including Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, and even stock apps like Dialer and Calendar. This update also brought on Google’s ambitions to expand outside of mobile devices and into wearables, televisions, and even automobiles. The other key development to accompany this version was in extending battery life and letting the user view category-wise battery usage by different apps and tasks.  

 

Chew-On the Nougat  

Android 7.0 Nougat, released on August 22^nd, 2016, introduced big changes for big phones. The most significant among them was split-screen multitasking, which helped get two apps running on-screen at once.

Nougat also allowed developers to add quick replies directly to their app’s notifications, letting users respond to messages without having to switch between apps. Android Nougat extended the battery-saving doze optimizations of Marshmallow. Now the device was put to deep sleep whenever the screen was turned off, extending the phone’s charge.

 

Drunk It!.........Oreo 

 

Oreo was Google’s second partnership to name its next version of Android after a branded snack. This version helped Google Assistant essentially replace Google Now as the default Virtual Assistant. Visually, Oreo also brought one of its most controversial moves yet: the death of the blob emoji. Now, notifications were prioritized by Android, such as a pinned music player, such as a pinned music player, followed by “people to people” alerts, followed by other notifications like news alerts or app updates. Also, notifications could be snoozed now. Project Treble separated the Android OS framework from the firmware and other low-level implementations installed by device makers such as Samsung. This made it easier for companies to move to newer versions of Android faster and more efficiently.

 

Pie On  

 

Android Pie became the first release that could be tested on non-Google smartphones since the platform first launched and became a turning point for mobile OS. By the time of its release, Google Assist had already rocked the market in the version Oreo.

It now has new gesture-based navigation and a dashboard to monitor and limit your “digital wellbeing” or app usage. It also incorporates AI more than ever, using it to drive Android’s UI in the form of Actions and Slices, which predicts the tasks you might want in a certain app then offers an immediate shortcut. Smaller but still more useful updates like an improved Do Not Disturb mode, screenshot editing, an early attempt at a “dark mode”, and a Lockdown feature designed to help protect your personal data in case you’re under duress round out version 9’s enhancements.

                              Thank You!