Languages used to build Android

Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance and commercially sponsored by Google. It was unveiled in November 2007, with the first commercial Android device, the HTC Dream, being launched in September 2008.

It is free and open-source software; its source code is known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which is primarily licensed under the Apache License. However most Android devices ship with additional proprietary software pre-installed, most notably Google Mobile Services (GMS) which includes core apps such as Google Chrome, the digital distribution platform Google Play and associated Google Play Services development platform. About 70 percent of Android smartphones run Google's ecosystem; competing Android ecosystems and forks include Fire OS (developed by Amazon) or LineageOS.

However the "Android" name and logo are trademarks of Google which impose standards to restrict "uncertified" devices outside their ecosystem to use Android branding.

The most popular programming languages that can be used to develop applications in Android are:

Java: It has always been a starting point for new developers and used by the majority of people who work with Android development. Eclipse, NetBeans, and IntelliJ IDE are the most popular IDE’s(Integrated Development Environment) used for developing an Android application using java.

Kotlin: Kotlin is a relatively new, modern, safe, and object-oriented cross-platform programming language used in developing an Android application. IDE’s used with kotlin are Android studio, Eclipse IDE, etc.

C#: Developers can build native iOS and Android mobile applications by using the C# language. Visual Studio is the best tool for developing an Android application using C#.

Python: It is a dynamic and object-oriented programming language. It is very popular in machine learning. Pydroid 3, Dcoder, spck code editor is some of the code editors for Python.

Other languages which can be used in Android development are C++, HTML 5. C4droid, CppDroid, AIDE, etc. are IDE’s for C++. Acode, spck code editor, etc. are examples of IDE’s used with HTML.