Android (operating system)

Android is an operating system developed by Google, designed primarily for smartphones and tablets (touchscreen-based mobile devices originally; later for other devices, such as TVs and PCs), based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software. First released in 2008¹, Android is the world's most widely used operating system with 3.9 billion users, and the most used operating system for smartphones. The latest version, released on June 16, 2026, is Android 17. At its core, the operating system is known as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), was originally only made for a smartphone, and is free and open-source software (FOSS) primarily licensed under the Apache License. However, most devices run the proprietary Android open-core version developed by Google, which ships with additional proprietary closed-source software pre-installed, most notably Google Mobile Services (GMS), which includes core apps such as Google Chrome, the digital distribution platform Google Play, and the associated Google Play Services development platform. Other Google services including Firebase Cloud Messaging, used for push notifications, are recommended for applications. While AOSP is free, the "Android" name and logo are trademarks of Google, who restrict the use of Android branding on "uncertified" products.…

Android is an operating system developed by Google, designed primarily for smartphones and tablets (touchscreen-based mobile devices originally; later for other devices, such as TVs and PCs), based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software. First released in 2008, Android is the world's most widely used operating system with 3.9 billion users, and the most used operating system for smartphones. The latest version, released on June 16, 2026, is Android 17. At its core, the operating system is known as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), was originally only made for a smartphone, and is free and open-source software (FOSS) primarily licensed under the Apache License. However, most devices run the proprietary Android open-core version developed by Google, which ships with additional proprietary closed-source software pre-installed, most notably Google Mobile Services (GMS), which includes core apps such as Google Chrome, the digital distribution platform Google Play, and the associated Google Play Services development platform. Other Google services including Firebase Cloud Messaging, used for push notifications, are recommended for applications. While AOSP is free, the "Android" name and logo are trademarks of Google, who restrict the use of Android branding on "uncertified" products. The majority of smartphones and other devices based on AOSP run Google's ecosystem—which is known simply as Android—some with vendor-customized user interfaces and software suites, for example One UI. Numerous modified distributions exist, which include competing Amazon Fire OS, community-developed LineageOS; the source code has also been used to develop a variety of Android distributions on a range of other devices, such as Android TV for televisions, Wear OS for wearables, Android Automotive for in-car systems, Android XR for virtual reality headsets, and Android for PCs. Commercial products like micro consoles have also used Android. Software packages on Android, which use the APK format, are generally distributed through a proprietary application store; non-Google platforms include vendor-specific Amazon Appstore, Samsung Galaxy Store, Huawei AppGallery, and third-party companies Aptoide, Cafe Bazaar, GetJar or open source F-Droid. Since 2011 Android has been the most used operating system worldwide on smartphones. It has the largest installed base of any operating system in the world with over three billion monthly active users and accounting for 45% of the global operating system market. == Hardware == The main hardware platform for Android is 64-bit ARM (i.e. the ARMv8-A architecture) and the 32-bit ARMv7-A architecture, with x86-64 and the 32-bit x86 architectures also being officially supported in later versions of Android. The unofficial Android-x86 project provided support for x86 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. An unofficial experimental port of the operating system to 64-bit RISC-V architecture was released in 2021¹. 32- and 64-bit MIPS was once supported; and Google has removed RISC-V support. Requirements for the minimum amount of RAM for smartphones running Android 15 range from 4 GB of RAM for full Android to 2 GB, in which case the smartphone manufacturers must use the Android Go Edition. Android supports all versions of OpenGL ES and Vulkan (and version 1.1 available for some devices ). Android devices incorporate many optional hardware components, including still or video cameras, GPS, orientation sensors, dedicated gaming controls, accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers, magnetometers, proximity sensors, pressure sensors, thermometers, and touchscreens. Some hardware components are not required, but became standard in certain classes of devices, such as smartphones, and additional requirements apply if they are present. Some other hardware was initially required, but those requirements have been relaxed or eliminated altogether. For example, as Android was developed initially as a phone OS, hardware such as microphones were required, while over time the phone function became optional. 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 when Android started to be used on set-top boxes. In addition to running on smartphones and tablets, several vendors run Android natively on regular PC hardware with a keyboard and mouse. In addition to their availability on commercially available hardware, similar PC hardware-friendly versions of Android are freely available from the Android-x86 project, including customized Android 4.4. Using the Android emulator that is part of the Android SDK, or third-party emulators, Android can also run non-natively on x86 architectures. Chinese companies are building a PC and mobile operating system, based on Android, to "compete directly with Microsoft Windows and Google Android". The Chinese Academy of Engineering noted that "more than a dozen" companies were customizing Android following a Chinese ban on the use of Windows 8 on government PCs. == Development == Android is developed by Google until the latest changes and updates are ready to be released, at which point the source code is made available to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), an open source initiative led by Google. The first source code release happened as part of the initial release in 2007. All releases are under the Apache License. The AOSP code can be found with minimal modifications on select devices, mainly the former Nexus and current Android One series of devices. However, most original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) customize the source code to run on their hardware. Android's source code does not contain the device drivers, often proprietary, that are needed for certain hardware components, and does not contain the source code of Google Play Services, which many apps depend on. As a result, most Android devices, including Google's own, ship with a combination of free and open source and proprietary software, with the software required for accessing Google services often falling into the latter category. In response to this, there are some projects that build complete operating systems based on AOSP as free software, the first being CyanogenMod (see section Open-source community below). === Device codenames === Internally, Android identifies each supported device by its device codename, a short string, which may or may not be similar to the model name used in marketing the device. For example, the device codename of the Pixel smartphone is sailfish. The device codename is usually not visible to the end user, but is important for determining compatibility with modified Android versions. It is sometimes also mentioned in articles discussing a device, because it allows users to distinguish different hardware variants of a device, even if the manufacturer offers them under the same name. The device codename is available to running applications under android.os.Build.DEVICE . == Security and privacy == In 2020, Google launched the Android Partner Vulnerability Initiative to improve the security of Android. They also formed an Android security team.

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1377019996 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.