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The version history of the Android mobile operating system began with the release of the Android alpha in November 5, 2007. The first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released in September 2008. Android is continually developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, and it has seen a number of updates to its base operating system since the initial release.
Contents
Versions 1.0 and 1.1 were not released under specific code names, but since 2009's Android 1.5 Cupcake, Android versions have had confectionery-themed code names. Each is in alphabetical order, with the most recent major version being Android 7.0 Nougat, released in August 2016.
A version of Android KitKat exclusive to Android Wear devices was released on June 25, 2014, with an API level of 20.
Pre-commercial release versions
The development of Android started in 2003 by Android, Inc., which was purchased by Google in 2005.
Alpha
There were at least two internal releases of the software inside Google and the OHA before the beta version was released. The code names Astro Boy and Bender were used internally for some pre-1.0 milestones.
Dan Morrill created some of the first mascot logos, but the current Android logo was designed by Irina Blok. The project manager, Ryan Gibson, conceived the confectionery-themed naming scheme that has been used for the majority of the public releases, starting with Android 1.5 Cupcake.
Beta
The beta was released on November 5, 2007, while the software development kit (SDK) was released on November 12, 2007. The November 5 date is popularly celebrated as Android's "birthday". Public beta versions of the SDK were released in the following order:
Version history by API level
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.
Hardware requirements
The main hardware platform for Android is the ARM architecture (ARMv7 and ARMv8-A architectures; formerly also ARMv5), with x86 and MIPS architectures also officially supported in later versions of Android. Unofficial Android-x86 project used to provide support for the x86 and MIPS architectures ahead of the official support. Since 2012, Android devices with Intel processors began to appear, including phones and tablets. While gaining support for 64-bit platforms, Android was first made to run on 64-bit x86 and then on ARM64. 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 5.1 range from 512 MB of RAM for normal-density screens, to about 1.8 GB for high-density screens. The recommendation for Android 4.4 is to have at least 512 MB of RAM, 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. Android 4.4 requires a 32-bit ARMv7, MIPS or x86 architecture processor (latter two through unofficial ports), together with an OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics processing unit (GPU). Android supports OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.2 and as of latest major version Vulkan. Some applications may explicitly require a certain version of the OpenGL ES, and suitable GPU hardware is required to run such applications.
Android used to require an autofocus camera, which was relaxed to a fixed-focus camera if present at all, since the camera was dropped as a requirement entirely (except for smartphones) when Android started to be used on set-top boxes.