Android versions: A living history from 1.0 to 14

What an extended, unusual journey it has been.

From its inaugural launch to at this time, Android has reworked visually, conceptually and functionally — time and time once more. Google’s cellular working system could have began out scrappy, however holy moly, has it ever developed.

This is a fast-paced tour of Android model highlights from the platform’s start to current. (Be happy to skip forward in case you simply need to see what’s new in Android 13 or Android 14.)

Android variations 1.0 to 1.1: The early days

Android made its official public debut in 2008 with Android 1.0 — a launch so historical it did not actually have a cute codename.

Issues had been fairly fundamental again then, however the software program did embody a set of early Google apps like Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and YouTube, all of which had been built-in into the working system — a stark distinction to the extra simply updatable standalone-app mannequin employed at this time.

T-Cellular

Android model 1.5: Cupcake

With early 2009’s Android 1.5 Cupcake launch, the custom of Android model names was born. Cupcake launched quite a few refinements to the Android interface, together with the primary on-screen keyboard — one thing that’d be obligatory as telephones moved away from the once-ubiquitous bodily keyboard mannequin.

Cupcake additionally introduced concerning the framework for third-party app widgets, which might shortly flip into considered one of Android’s most distinguishing parts, and it supplied the platform’s first-ever choice for video recording.

Android Police (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Android model 1.6: Donut

Android 1.6, Donut, rolled into the world within the fall of 2009. Donut crammed in some necessary holes in Android’s middle, together with the flexibility for the OS to function on a wide range of totally different display sizes and resolutions — an element that’d be important within the years to return. It additionally added assist for CDMA networks like Verizon, which might play a key function in Android’s imminent explosion.

Google

Android variations 2.0 to 2.1: Eclair

Maintaining the breakneck launch tempo of Android’s early years, Android 2.0, Eclair, emerged simply six weeks after Donut; its “point-one” replace, additionally known as Eclair, got here out a pair months later. Eclair was the primary Android launch to enter mainstream consciousness due to the unique Motorola Droid cellphone and the huge Verizon-led advertising marketing campaign surrounding it.

Verizon’s “iDon’t” advert for the Droid.

The discharge’s most transformative component was the addition of voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation and real-time visitors information — one thing beforehand unprecedented (and nonetheless primarily unmatched) within the smartphone world. Navigation apart, Eclair introduced stay wallpapers to Android in addition to the platform’s first speech-to-text operate. And it made waves for injecting the once-iOS-exclusive pinch-to-zoom functionality into Android — a transfer usually seen because the spark that ignited Apple’s long-lasting “thermonuclear struggle” in opposition to Google.

Google

Android model 2.2: Froyo

Simply 4 months after Android 2.1 arrived, Google served up Android 2.2, Froyo, which revolved largely round under-the-hood efficiency enhancements.

Froyo did ship some necessary front-facing options, although, together with the addition of the now-standard dock on the backside of the house display in addition to the primary incarnation of Voice Actions, which allowed you to carry out fundamental features like getting instructions and making notes by tapping an icon after which talking a command.

Google

Notably, Froyo additionally introduced assist for Flash to Android’s net browser — an choice that was important each due to the widespread use of Flash on the time and due to Apple’s adamant stance in opposition to supporting it by itself cellular gadgets. Apple would finally win, in fact, and Flash would turn into far much less widespread. However again when it was nonetheless in all places, having the ability to entry the total net with none black holes was a real benefit solely Android might provide.

Android model 2.3: Gingerbread

Android’s first true visible id began coming into focus with 2010’s Gingerbread launch. Shiny inexperienced had lengthy been the colour of Android’s robotic mascot, and with Gingerbread, it turned an integral a part of the working system’s look. Black and inexperienced seeped everywhere in the UI as Android began its gradual march towards distinctive design.

JR Raphael / IDG

Android 3.0 to three.2: Honeycomb

2011’s Honeycomb interval was a bizarre time for Android. Android 3.0 got here into the world as a tablet-only launch to accompany the launch of the Motorola Xoom, and thru the next 3.1 and three.2 updates, it remained a tablet-exclusive (and closed-source) entity.

Below the steerage of newly arrived design chief Matias Duarte, Honeycomb launched a dramatically reimagined UI for Android. It had a space-like “holographic” design that traded the platform’s trademark inexperienced for blue and positioned an emphasis on taking advantage of a pill’s display house.

JR Raphael / IDG

Whereas the idea of a tablet-specific interface did not final lengthy, a lot of Honeycomb’s concepts laid the groundwork for the Android we all know at this time. The software program was the primary to make use of on-screen buttons for Android’s important navigational instructions; it marked the start of the top for the everlasting overflow-menu button; and it launched the idea of a card-like UI with its tackle the Latest Apps record.

Android model 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich

With Honeycomb appearing because the bridge from outdated to new, Ice Cream Sandwich — additionally launched in 2011 — served because the platform’s official entry into the period of recent design. The discharge refined the visible ideas launched with Honeycomb and reunited tablets and telephones with a single, unified UI imaginative and prescient.

ICS dropped a lot of Honeycomb’s “holographic” look however stored its use of blue as a system-wide spotlight. And it carried over core system parts like on-screen buttons and a card-like look for app-switching.

JR Raphael / IDG

Android 4.0 additionally made swiping a extra integral methodology of getting across the working system, with the then-revolutionary-feeling capacity to swipe away issues like notifications and up to date apps. And it began the gradual means of bringing a standardized design framework — generally known as “Holo” — all all through the OS and into Android’s app ecosystem.

Android variations 4.1 to 4.3: Jelly Bean

Unfold throughout three impactful Android variations, 2012 and 2013’s Jelly Bean releases took ICS’s contemporary basis and made significant strides in fine-tuning and constructing upon it. The releases added loads of poise and polish into the working system and went a good distance in making Android extra inviting for the common person.

Visuals apart, Jelly Bean led to our first style of Google Now — the spectacular predictive-intelligence utility that is sadly since devolved right into a glorified information feed. It gave us expandable and interactive notifications, an expanded voice search system, and a extra superior system for displaying search outcomes normally, with a deal with card-based outcomes that tried to reply questions immediately.

Multiuser assist additionally got here into play, albeit on tablets solely at this level, and an early model of Android’s Fast Settings panel made its first look. Jelly Bean ushered in a closely hyped system for putting widgets in your lock display, too — one which, like so many Android options over time, quietly disappeared a pair years later.

JR Raphael / IDG

Android model 4.4: KitKat

Late-2013’s KitKat launch marked the top of Android’s darkish period, because the blacks of Gingerbread and the blues of Honeycomb lastly made their method out of the working system. Lighter backgrounds and extra impartial highlights took their locations, with a clear standing bar and white icons giving the OS a extra up to date look.

Android 4.4 additionally noticed the primary model of “OK, Google” assist — however in KitKat, the hands-free activation immediate labored solely when your display was already on and you had been both at your property display or contained in the Google app.

The discharge was Google’s first foray into claiming a full panel of the house display for its providers, too — not less than, for customers of its personal Nexus telephones and people who selected to obtain its first-ever standalone launcher.

JR Raphael / IDG

Android variations 5.0 and 5.1: Lollipop

Google primarily reinvented Android — once more — with its Android 5.0 Lollipop launch within the fall of 2014. Lollipop launched the still-present-today Materials Design normal, which introduced a complete new look that prolonged throughout all of Android, its apps and even different Google merchandise.

The cardboard-based idea that had been scattered all through Android turned a core UI sample — one that may information the looks of every thing from notifications, which now confirmed up on the lock display for at-a-glance entry, to the Latest Apps record, which took on an unabashedly card-based look.

JR Raphael / IDG

Lollipop launched a slew of recent options into Android, together with actually hands-free voice management through the “OK, Google” command, assist for a number of customers on telephones and a precedence mode for higher notification administration. It modified a lot, sadly, that it additionally launched a bunch of troubling bugs, a lot of which would not be absolutely ironed out till the next yr’s 5.1 launch.