Android (operating system)

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Android (operating system)
For other uses, see Android (disambiguation).
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google, based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. In addition, Google has further developed Android TV for televisions, Android Auto for cars, and Wear OS for wrist watches, each with a specialized user interface. Variants of Android are also used on game consoles, digital cameras, PCs and other electronics.

Android
Android robot 2014.svg
Android logo (2014).svg
Android Oreo 8.1 screenshot.png
Android 8.1 Oreo home screen
Developer
Google,
Open Handset Alliance
Written in
Java (UI), C (core), C++ and more[1]
OS family
Unix-like
Working state
Current
Source model
Open source (most devices include proprietary components, such as Google Play)
Initial release
September 23, 2008; 9 years ago[2]
Latest release
8.1.0 "Oreo" / December 5, 2017; 5 months ago
Latest preview
Android P / March 7, 2018; 2 months ago[3]
Marketing target
Smartphones, tablet computers, smartTVs (Android TV), Android Auto and smartwatches (Wear OS)
Available in
100+ languages[4]
Package manager
APK (primarily through Google Play; installation of APKs also possible locally or from alternative sources such as F-Droid)
Platforms
32- and 64-bit ARM, x86 and x86-64
Kernel type
Monolithic (modified Linux kernel)
Userland
Bionic libc,[5] mksh shell,[6] Toybox as core utilities beginning with Android 6.0,[7][8] previously native core utilities with a few from NetBSD[9][10]
Default user interface
Graphical (multi-touch)
License
Apache License 2.0
GNU GPL v2 for the Linux kernel modifications[11]
Official website
android.com
Initially developed by Android Inc., which Google bought in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007, with the first commercial Android device launched in September 2008. The operating system has since gone through multiple major releases, with the current version being 8.1 "Oreo", released in December 2017. The core Android source code is known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP), and is primarily licensed under the Apache License.

Android is also associated with a suite of proprietary software developed by Google, including core apps for services such as Gmail and Google Search, as well as the application store and digital distribution platform Google Play, and associated development platform. These apps are licensed by manufacturers of Android devices certified under standards imposed by Google, but AOSP has been used as the basis of competing Android ecosystems, such as Amazon.com's Fire OS, which utilize its own equivalents to these Google Mobile Services.

Android has been the best-selling OS worldwide on smartphones since 2011 and on tablets since 2013. As of May 2017, it has over two billion monthly active users, the largest installed base of any operating system, and as of 2017, the Google Play store features over 3.5 million apps.[12]