Android has come a long way since it was the only product of a small startup until now it has taken over 80% of the mobile operating system market. In this article we’re going to read about the complete history of Android.

The complete history of Android

If you are also an old user of the Android ecosystem, you probably have the feeling that this popular operating system has been a constant and integral part of your experience in the world of smartphones since you can remember; Hence, it may be hard to believe that it’s only been a little over a decade and a half since the first Android-based phone was released.

Undoubtedly, the factor that caused Android’s great success was Google’s fateful decision to turn it into an open-source project. The open-source nature of Android, which puts it in direct opposition to its great and monopolistic competitor, Apple’s iOS, brought the increasing popularity of this operating system among non-Google mobile manufacturers; So that only a few years after the release of Android 1.0, smartphones based on this operating system could be found everywhere.

Android has become the most popular mobile operating system in the world, surpassing competitors such as Symbian, Blackberry, Palm, WebOS, and Windows Phone, and more than three billion devices worldwide are based on Android. In fact, Apple’s iOS is the only platform that is still a serious competitor to Android, and that doesn’t seem like it’s going to change anytime soon.

Now that 16 years have passed since the birth of Android and many smartphone users are enjoying the Material You design language and the new features of Android 14, let’s take a look at the rich history of the Android operating system and the changes it has undergone during this time.

Read More: The best new features of Android 14

Table of Contents

• The beginning of the Android way
• Android logo
• Release of Android 1.0
• Android 1.1
• Android 1.5 Cupcake
• Android 1.6 Donut
• Android 2.0 Eclair
• Android 2.1 Eclair
• Android 2.2 Ice Cream Yogurt
• Android 2.3 gingerbread
• Android 3.0 Honeycomb
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• Android 4.1 to 4.3 Jelly Bean
• Android 4.4 KitKat
• Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• Android 7.0 Nougat
• Android 8.0 Oreo
• Android 9.0 Pie
• Android 10
• Android 11
• Android 12
• Android 13
• Android 14
• The future of Android

The beginning of the Android way

The story of Android begins in October 2003; That is, long before the epidemic of the term ” smartphone ” and several years before Apple introduced the first iPhone and with it the first version of iOS. The Android company was founded in Palo Alto, California, and its founders were four young men named Rich Miner, Nick Sears, Chris White, and Andy Rubin. At the time, Robin said the Android company was going to “develop smarter mobile devices that are more aware of the user’s location and interests.”

In his 2013 speech in Tokyo, Rubin revealed that the Android operating system was originally intended to be an improved version of the operating system for digital cameras; But even in those days, the digital camera market was falling. It only took a few months for the founders of the Android company to abandon their initial plans and take steps towards using this operating system in mobile phones.

In 2005, another big chapter in the history of Android took place; Google bought the Android company. Robin and the other founders remained at Google’s Android company to work on the development of the operating system. It was decided to use Linux for the development of Android OS, and this fateful decision became the basis for Android to be available to all mobile phone manufacturers as an open-source project for free. Google and the Android development team came to the conclusion that the company could make significant profits not by monopolizing the brand, but by providing services that were based on this operating system, including applications.

Robin remained at Google as the manager of the Android team until 2013; But a year later, following the publication of documents of Robin’s sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with employees, he was forced to leave Google to start his own growth center startup. He finally left this startup to return to the world of smartphones in 2017 with the failed Essential Phone project. Robin is no longer in the media spotlight these days, but his legacy lives on under Google’s watch.

Android logo

The very familiar Android logo, which looks like a combination of a robot and a green bug, was designed by Irina Block when she was still working at Google. According to Block, Google’s design team only asked him to make the logo look like a robot (perhaps because of Robin’s fondness for his Star Wars robot toy). Block also said that part of the final Android logo design was inspired by the “male” and “female” head signs in public restrooms.

Block and Google both decided that the Android bot itself, like the operating system, would be an open-source project. Almost every other big company protects its logo with all its might against any modification of the design and use by others, but the Android robot has been used by thousands of people around the world thanks to the copyright license issued by Google. It has been manipulated.

The Android logo, also known as “Andy”, was redesigned in 2019 along with the Android brand, and although it has now lost a large part of its body, its presence is more visible in all products related to the Android brand.

Release of Android 1.0

It was in 2007 that Apple started a new era in mobile processing with the release of the first iPhone. At the time, Google was still secretly working on Android, but in November of that year, it revealed its plans to compete with Apple and other mobile platforms. In a big move, Google formed a consortium of different companies called the “Open Handset Alliance”, which included mobile phone manufacturers such as HTC and Motorola, chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, and telecommunications companies such as T-Mobile.

After announcing the formation of the consortium, Google’s CEO at the time, Eric Schmidt, described it as “more ambitious” than any Google phone that the media had been speculating about for weeks, saying, “Our vision is that with this powerful platform, we will see the production of Let’s be thousands of different mobile phones.

The public beta version of Android 1.0 was released to developers on November 5, 2007. In September 2008, the first Android smartphone, the T-Mobile G1, also known as the HTC Dream in some parts of the world, was introduced. This Android phone with its 3.2-inch pop-up touch screen and physical QWERTY keyboard was not so innovative in design and was even criticized by the technology media. However, Android 1.0 inside this phone also had a trace of Google’s future plans for the development of this operating system.

Android 1.0 brought together several other products and services of the company, such as Google Maps, YouTube, and the HTML browser (which was the predecessor of Chrome), which naturally used Google’s search services, and the first version of Android Market to offer “dozens of Android applications.” introduced “unique”. Other features of Android 1.0 include the notification window that is still present in newer versions of Android, widgets, and integration with the Gmail email service.

All these features seem trivial now, but with the help of these, Android’s leadership in the mobile market was sparked.

The first Android update took place three months after the release of the G1 in February 2009. Version 1.1 cannot be considered an innovative product in any way, because it only included software patches to optimize the system and fix its bugs. But Android 1.1 is important because it demonstrates Google’s ability to deliver updates effortlessly. This same feature, which seems trivial these days, was considered one of the strengths of Android at the time of the release of version 1.1 because other mobile operating systems at that time did not have the ability to update in this way.

With the release of Android 1.5 in April 2009, Google started the 10-year tradition of naming Android versions based on the names of sweets and desserts in the order of the Latin alphabet, and to begin with, the lottery was named Cupcake. Android owes this naming system to Google’s project manager, Ryan Gibson; However, until today, no one has discovered the secret of his interest in this naming model.

Android 1.5 is truly a turning point in the history of Android. In this version, in addition to introducing the special naming method of this operating system, important features were added, which of course seem trivial these days; including the ability to upload videos to YouTube, automatic screen rotation, the addition of a virtual keyboard, and support for various keyboards, which at that time, its fierce competitor, iOS, was useless.

It is interesting to know that the first Samsung Galaxy and HTC Hero phones were launched with Android 1.5

Android 1.6 Donut

A few months after Android 1.5, Google released version 1.6 under the name Donut in September 2009. Although Donut wasn’t as influential in Android history as Cupcake, it did come with a big change that happened behind the scenes. The new operating system introduced support for CDMA-based networks for the first time, making it possible for Android phones to be sold by all carriers worldwide.

Other features of Android 1.6 include the introduction of a quick search box, a quick toggle between camera options, video recording, and gallery, and the “Power Control” widget to manage Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc. In addition, for the first time, Donut made it possible to display the power of Android on a variety of screens with different resolutions and aspect ratios. Android Market was also launched with a new design in white and green colors, which displayed a list of the top free and paid apps. However, this version of Android had many flaws in the camera interface, which remained until Android 2.3.

Android 2.0 Eclair

In early November 2009, almost a year after the release of the G1 phone and the first version of Android, Android 2.0 was released. If we want to describe this update in one word, “big” is a good adjective, because this version of the Android operating system was a big achievement with big promises coming to big phones from big companies!

At first, Eclair was released exclusively on Verizon phones and marked one of the best collaboration experiences in this field. The factor that made Eclair successful was that in this version of Android, we saw the most changes both in terms of appearance and internal architecture. Features added to version 2.0 include support for multiple accounts, free Google Maps navigation, which is still popular and useful (before that, drivers paid a hefty fee for such an application), quick access to information Contact, improved virtual keyboard with multi-touch data recognition and browser redesign that brought it closer to today’s Google Chrome browser.

Android 2.1 Eclair

Although Google kept the Eclair name for the next Android update, it added extensive changes. Android 2.1, which was released in January 2010, was so good at the time that many new phones were equipped with it. After all, many software bugs were also fixed in this version.

With Android 2.1, Google unveiled live wallpapers for the first time, which, by displaying animated and interactive images instead of a static image in the background, were very attractive at the same time and attracted the attention of many users. In this version of Android, for the first time, we saw the ability to convert speech to text (TTS), with the help of which users could talk to their phone so that texts are entered through the user’s voice instead of typing with the keyboard. Also, from Android 2.1 onwards, the comma button in the virtual keyboard was replaced with a dedicated microphone button to make it easier for the user to access this feature. It is interesting to know that from iOS 5 onwards, this feature was also added to the keyboard of the Apple operating system.

In addition, Android 2.0 uses a new screen lock, one side of which has the option of silent mode (silent), and the other side of the screen lock, opens the main screen by touching it. Although the changes of this update were not very dramatic, it was considered a strategic change for Google and probably had a direct connection with changing the basic appearance of Android and offering customized versions for the company’s business partners in their products.

At that time, Google’s direct cooperation with HTC led to the release of the Nexus One equipped with Qualcomm’s first 1 GHz processors, which offered a pure experience of Android 2.1 and became one of the well-made Android phones. After this cooperation, Google went to Motorola to make the Motorola Droid phone with the Eclair version of Android available on the market; However, Motorola Droid’s success in this field was not as good as Nexus One.

Android 2.2 Ice Cream Yogurt

Android 2.2, known as Froyo, was released in mid-2010. It was after this that the benefits of the Nexus project showed themselves, and the Nexus One, which was equipped with Android 2.1 when it was released, was the first smartphone to be updated to this operating system.

Smartphones running Android 2.2 featured a new home screen design; The three traditional Android panels were replaced by five panels, and at the bottom of the screen there were shortcuts to the application menu and the browser.

The gallery section of Android 2.2 has also been completely redesigned and for the first time displayed the 3D features of this platform. For example, by tilting the screen or moving between different albums and photos, high-quality animations were displayed. Google also provided the traditional PIN lock screen in this version so that users who did not like the pattern lock method or were looking for a more secure method, could lock their phone by entering a code.

Android 2.3 gingerbread

About six months after the release of Froyo on the Nexus One, Google entered the next phase of the Nexus project to launch a new phone with Android 2.3 known as Gingerbread. This time, Google went to Samsung to mass-produce the Nexus S phone in the line of the successful Galaxy S phone. Although the Nexus S was technically not much better than the previous Nexus One phone, it was very different from the first member of the Nexus family in terms of appearance and gained many fans thanks to its round-edge screen and transparent and dark-colored body.

Android 2.3 was a minor update in many ways, But the multitude of these small changes caused a significant difference compared to the previous version, and in this version, we saw the most changes in appearance since the release of Android 2.1. For example, the word Malmo was removed from the analog clock widget; The home screen and user interface components have been given a green color theme, and the status bar has become more beautiful with a dark background and bright text. Gingerbread looked cleaner and more modern than previous versions, but it was actually Google’s clever trick to reduce battery consumption; Because all those bright components in the Amoled screen consumed a lot of energy.

New features added to Android 2.3 include more control over copy/paste, an advanced keyboard and improved multi-touch functionality, better tools for device management and higher battery efficiency, and video chat camera support.

Other features of gingerbread include Google’s special attention to developers and support for NFC technology, which provides the necessary infrastructure for the mobile payment system. Google also took advantage of the release of Gingerbread as an opportunity to strengthen its foothold in the mobile game market; In this version, developers were given low-level access to things like sound, device control, graphics, and data storage, which allowed them to write relatively fast-executing code; This work was the key to the developers’ success in entering the 3D game market.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Android 3.0 can be seen as a strange and unique phenomenon that was intended for tablets and of course mobile devices with large screens instead of smartphones. This time, Google went to Motorola to work together to launch the Xoom tablet equipped with a “honeycomb” in February 2011.

In this version of Android, the color green, which is now known as the symbol of Android, was replaced by blue; For example, the battery and antenna percentage indicator as well as the clock widget were displayed in blue color. The main screen and widget placement were also redesigned, and with the introduction of virtual buttons in the system bar, the need for physical buttons on tablets equipped with Android 3.0 for search, menus, home, and back was eliminated. With the death of physical buttons, hardware developers had more room to expand screen dimensions.

Android 3.0 was also accompanied by the introduction of a new concept called “Action Bar” which was located at the top of each application screen and can be considered a kind of status bar for applications. For the third version of Android, Google released two small updates in the form of 3.1 and 3.2, which provided important features, especially for tablets.

Beehive can be seen as the response of Google and its partners to the release of Apple’s iPad in 2010, and although this version of the operating system was readily available, some Android tablets of the time still came with previous mobile versions. In the end, Honeybee was not well received and Google decided to implement most of its features in Android 4.0.

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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Android 4.0 known as “Ice Cream Sandwich” was released in October 2011 with the Galaxy Nexus phone. This was the second collaboration between Google and Samsung in the supply of Android phones, and less than a year had passed since their collaboration in the production of the Nexus S phone equipped with Android Gingerbread.

Android 4.0 can undoubtedly be considered the biggest change of Android in the field of smartphones, although its design and many new features were released in the previous version for tablets. This version had virtual buttons and its color theme changed from green to blue; Support for widgets and multitasking was improved, as well as the ability to show thumbnails of the list of open applications. Google also used a new font called Roboto to improve the user experience, and full Persian language support was added to Android from this version onwards.

Another new feature of Ice Cream Sandwich was the ability to delete notifications in the notification window, where before there was only the option to delete all of them. The artificial intelligence of the virtual keyboard has also been greatly improved and has achieved great progress in the field of text error detection and word suggestions. In fact, we can say that it was from Android 4.0 that text input, clipboard support, and the quality of the virtual keyboard became so advanced and similar to other similar applications in the market.

The key features of Android 4.0 include the Android Beam application for easy data transfer between two phones, facial recognition lock, and bandwidth usage analysis. The calendar application also took an integrated approach for the first time, which was considered a good option for people who were looking to use multiple user accounts in one application.

Android 4.1 to 4.3 Jelly Bean

The era of the “Jelly Bean” version of Android began in June 2012 with the release of Android 4.1 and continued with the rapid release of versions 4.2 and 4.3 in October of the same year and July 2013.

In version 4.1, we saw smooth movement between menus and pages, which Google referred to as “Project Butter”. The personal assistant Google Now, which was undoubtedly one of the biggest and most important ambitions of Google, was added to the search department and turned Android into a complete platform capable of processing all kinds of data, scheduling things, location, time, etc. With jelly candy, for the first time, users could use the ability to convert speech to text offline. Notifications, widgets, and text prediction in the virtual keyboard have also undergone improvements.

Android 4.2 came with the Nexus 4 phone and Nexus 10 tablet and added wireless connection to the TV via Miracast to the operating system so that users can run their favorite software and games on the larger TV screen by purchasing these boxes for $99. do In this version, new typing gestures were added, which were a precursor to the Swype keyboard. In the photography section, a panorama mode called Photo Sphere was added. Also, this version provided support for the use of one tablet by several users so that each user could have their software and personal information on a shared tablet.

Android 4.3 was made available with the second-generation Nexus 7, which was produced in collaboration with Asus. In this version, there were no major changes, only the operating system performance was improved, and some new features were added to the user interface. However, Android 4.3 brought with it the ability to support the OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics standard to run games with 3D graphics. After a short time, Apple added support for this software engine to its devices by updating the iOS operating system so that its users do not lag behind in the field of mobile games.

Android 4.4 KitKat

Android 4.4 was the first version of this operating system that used a brand instead of the generic name of a dessert or dessert. For this purpose, Google contacted Nestlé and asked for permission to use the name KitKat to name its new Android, and Nestlé accepted. Google did not repeat this model of marketing cooperation until the release of the Oreo version.

Android 4.4, which was released in October 2013, did not have many new features and most of the changes were made at the user interface level. However, the availability of one feature was enough to make the Android market hotter, and that was the optimization of this operating system to run on smartphones with less than 512 MB of RAM. This feature allowed mobile manufacturers to use the latest version of Android on much cheaper devices. Google’s Nexus 5 was also the first smartphone to be released with Android 4.4.

The most important exclusive features of Android 4.4 KitKat are the integration of Google Now with the home screen, a completely new smart dialer that adjusts according to the user’s needs, full-screen applications thanks to the notification bar and transparent control bar, integrated Hangout application for all messaging, redesigned “Clock” applications and “Downloads”, a new keyboard with emoji support and support for HDR+ photography.

Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop

Android 5.0, known as Lollipop, which was introduced in the fall of 2014 with the Motorola Nexus 6 phone and the HTC Nexus 9 tablet, was a revolutionary version of Google’s mobile operating system; Because it was the first version of Android that uses the new and exclusive design language of Google called Material Design. In Material Design, the design throughout the operating system has become simpler and more minimal. To access quick settings and notifications bar, two-finger gestures were no longer needed and users could access these items with just one finger movement from the top of the screen to the bottom.

The Adaptive Brightness feature replaced Auto-Brightness so that in addition to the device changing the brightness level automatically based on the ambient light, the user can also increase and decrease the brightness level as desired with the help of the slider. There were no more widgets on the lock screen, and Google only showed the time and date in the middle of the screen.

It was in this version of Android that the Interruptions feature was added with the same function as Do Not Disturb in the iPhone, and it allowed users to block all notifications to increase concentration and avoid distractions. The Power Saver feature was also added to this version, where the user could set this feature to be activated automatically when the battery charge reaches a certain level.

Version 5.1 of Android Lollipop was released in March 2015 for Nexus phones, which was accompanied by some features and minor changes and bug fixes of the previous version. For example, Priority mode was added to Interruptions. With the screen pinning feature, you could pin a specific application so that the person who is working with it on your phone cannot leave this page and go to other parts of the phone; Unless it has your PIN code. Support for two SIM cards is also possible in this version of Android.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow

A week after the introduction of new Nexus devices in the fall of 2015, Google introduced the final version of Android 6 with the name Marshmallow. This version of the operating system did not change much in appearance compared to Android 5 Lollipop, but it benefited from minor changes in order to be smarter; including vertical scrolling in the app drawer, the ability to increase and decrease the volume of different sections individually, the ability to change the icons of the notification bar section, and the addition of the Doze function to improve battery consumption.

In addition, in this version of Android, for the first time, we saw the addition of support for the fingerprint sensor and USB Type-C, which the new Nexus 6P and 5X were equipped with.

Android 7.0 Nougat

Android 7.0, known as Nougat, is the seventh version of the Android operating system, which was released in the fall of 2016. This version of the operating system was not much different in appearance from its previous version, But significant software changes were made to it. For example, after a long time, Google added Split-Screen support to its operating system so that users can have two applications open and visible on the screen at the same time. In this version, users could directly respond to messages in the notification section without the need to run the application. Among the other improvements made in the multitasking section is a quick switch between two recently used applications. This was also done simply by double-tapping the Overview square key.

In the version of Android 7.0, the ability to personalize and support various themes for the keyboard was added. Emojis were also now offered with multiple skin tones. Behind the scenes, Google also improved the performance of the operating system, the appearance of Android games, and the security of media file management, and added file-based encryption. Google also equipped Android Nougat with two partitions for the operating system, just like the Chrome operating system, so that a completely new operating system is sent to the user’s phone and installed on the inactive partition.

Google also used the release of Android Nougat as a bold excuse to market its luxury phones. Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL phones, along with the LG V20, were among the first flagship phones to come with Nougat.

Android 8.0 Oreo

In April 2017, we saw the release of Android 8 known as Oreo, which after the introduction of the KitKat version, was Google’s second attempt to use the brand name of another company to name its operating system. At first glance, Android 8 was not much different from the Nougat version, and only a few small and big changes were made in the previous version.

In Android Oreo, Google brought the picture-in-picture feature to other applications in addition to the YouTube application. The notification management was improved in this version so that the user could set different permissions for each application. It was in this version that Google allowed applications to display their notification icon on the icon. The number of emojis was also increased in this version and users had more control over the background activity of applications. The first phone released with Android Oreo was Google’s own Pixel 2.

Android 9.0 Pie

August 2018 was the time of the release of Android 8 known as Pie, which was first introduced as Android P during the Google I/O event. This version of Android was accompanied by new and great changes and features; Among other things, the addition of motion gestures with the aim of replacing the popular Android navigation bar that we have seen before on the iPhone 10. The new motion gestures of Android 9 allowed the user to return to the home screen, switch between running apps, and go back to the previous stage by making gestures from the bottom edge of the device.

Android 9 also uses machine learning to help the user use the full potential of their phone and manage battery consumption better than before. For example, the adaptive brightness feature, which was introduced with Android 5, provided the user with the ability to manually adjust the display brightness after getting to know the user’s favorite brightness level. “Actions” were also considered another intelligence of Android 9 Pie, which is based on the expected user pattern and is actually a shortcut for access to items that are used continuously.

Another smart feature of Android 9 was the new Slice API, which allowed developers to directly access their key features from the search menu.

Android 10

2019 was a year full of big changes for the Android ecosystem. For the first time, Google abandoned its 10-year tradition of naming different versions of Android based on sweets and desserts and modernized the traditional Android logo. The reason for abandoning this naming tradition was that the names of some of these sweets were unfamiliar to many countries with different cultures. The Android brand, which was previously only introduced with the green word Android, is now black, and next to it is the green head of a lovely robot, which, according to Ud Gandon, Android’s global brand manager at that time, makes this brand “more human.”, entertaining and friendly.

Android 10 (formerly known as Android Q) was officially released on September 3, 2019, for Google’s Pixel devices and included several new features, API, and significant improvements.

The most visible operating system change was the new and redesigned Android Gestures interface, where the three buttons at the bottom of the screen for going home or going back were removed and became completely swipe-based. Of course, unlike the previous version, in all phones based on Android 10, the use of swipe instead of the button was optional, and Google has included this option in its operating system so far.

A less obvious change was to the way the operating system was updated, which eventually led to faster and more regular releases of smaller, more focused patches. This version of Android had other small but important improvements; Including the updated access permission system, which gave the user more control over how and when applications use location-related data.

In addition to these, Android 10 also included these features: a dark mode for the entire system, support for foldable phones that were on the way, smart replies in all messengers, a new focus mode that allowed the user to press a button on the screen, the number of notifications for each Limit the application and the new design of the sharing menu that we have been waiting for a long time. Android 10 also introduced the new Live Caption feature, first for Pixel phones and then for other phones, with the help of which text could be placed on recorded images, videos, podcasts, or audio files.

Android 11

Android 11, which was released in September 2020, was considered a significant update both in terms of visible changes and changes under the skin. The most important changes of this version were related to privacy; The access permission system, which was introduced with Android 10, has now been expanded and users can determine the access level of applications based on location, camera, or microphone access. In Android 10, users could restrict access to only the duration of the app’s use, but in Android 11, the app can be given one-time access.

Android 11 also allows the system to access the location in the background so that it is more difficult to request access to applications and the possibility of accidentally activating these accesses by the user is less. Another new feature that was introduced in the same area, the access permission of applications that have not been opened for several months, was automatically taken from them, and the user needs to manually activate this permission again.

Other than that, Android 11 no longer allowed an app to see other installed apps on a user’s phone and limited the ways apps could interact with local storage to further protect data stored on the phone.

The Bubble feature of Android 11, which was rumored since 2019 and is reminiscent of the Chat Heads of Facebook messenger, allowed the conversations held in different messengers such as Telegram or Google’s own Messages to float together like a bubble on the surface of the user interface, so that You can quickly access them in any environment and after finishing the conversation, leave their bubble in a corner of the user interface.

The ability to select, copy, and share text or photos from the application with another application was also provided in this version. Other new features of Android 11 include separate notifications, integrated control of multimedia content, video recording of the phone’s software environment with the ability to record sound and show where the screen is touched, and better compatibility with the design of foldable devices.

Overall, Android 11 wasn’t an update that came with a ton of groundbreaking features, but it did improve the user experience of the Android smartphone and showed that Google is moving in the right direction.

Android 12

Google officially released the final version of Android 12 in October 2021 along with the Pixel 6 series phone. Google’s latest operating system update is more of a step forward than a giant leap, But these small improvements have been able to make a significant difference in the user experience.

Unlike the previous versions where most of the changes were done away from the user’s eyes, we see the most important changes of Android 12 in the appearance and user interface. Almost 8 years have passed since the start of using the Material Design design language that was introduced with Android 5, with Android 12 and Material You, we finally see a big change and transformation in the popular Google operating system that prioritizes the user’s taste and more personalization options. puts it at his disposal.

The biggest change that attracts attention in Android 12 is the alignment of the phone’s color palette based on the background image chosen by the user, and this color change is applied throughout the operating system, from the lock screen to the application icon, notification screen, volume control, and even widgets. The quick settings panel has also undergone fundamental changes and the number of choices is reduced to four options at first glance, to access additional settings options, it is necessary to fully open the drop-down menu at the top of the screen. To make the quick settings menu quieter, Google has integrated the mobile internet and Wi-Fi buttons into one button called Internet, which may not be a pleasant change for some users.

Notifications are also neater in Android 12 and are displayed with rounded corners. In addition, more content is displayed in each notification. The updated applications also run faster and smoother with the touch of their notifications and make the user experience more enjoyable.

Apart from the appearance changes, Android 12 focuses more on widgets, improved performance, security, and privacy. With the addition of a privacy dashboard, this update gives the user more control over the level of access that apps have to data, and Google stores the data collected from the user that is needed for artificial intelligence tasks completely locally in a separate partition in the operating system. so that they never leave the device.

The gaming experience is also at the center of Google’s attention, and users can benefit from features such as a frame rate counter, a shortcut for streaming on YouTube, a shortcut for taking a screenshot, and recording screen content by accessing the Game Dashboard.

Other features of Android 12 include device-wide search, scrolling screenshots, improved auto-rotation, live translation, and the Magic Eraser tool, which is only available for Pixel phones and allows photography enthusiasts to remove elements from photos.

To find out whether your Android phone is on the Android 12 eligible list or not, you can visit the article on which phones will receive the Android 12 update.

Android 13

Android 13 was introduced in August 2022 and unlike Android 12, it was accompanied by limited changes. In this version of the operating system, Google has focused most of its efforts on solving the previous problems and is content with providing only a few limited features to improve the quality of life of its users.

One of the biggest changes in Android 13 is the addition of the Live Transcribe feature, which allows simultaneous conversion of voice messages, video audio, or even the conversation of the contact during a call.

The next interesting feature is the ability to copy a part of the text or save a photo in the list of programs running in the background. To use this feature, just swipe up from the middle and bottom of the screen to see the list of all the programs running in the background.

Android 13 has brought the ability to change the language of each application individually to Android devices. With this feature, for example, you can choose the Farsi language for a program, while the general environment language of the device is English.

Improved Material Your design language also allows you to change the phone’s user interface based on wallpaper colors. Full access to the features of Material You, which was previously reserved for Google applications in Android 12, is now possible for other applications as well; Thus, you can match the icon of all applications that support this design language with the color of your chosen theme.

Another important thing is the improvements to app licensing to respect privacy. This means that every app in Android 13 will ask for your permission before sending notifications, either right after installation or later in its privacy settings.

Another interesting feature of Android 13 is the ability to monitor programs that are active in the background. You can see these applications at the bottom of the screen in Quick Settings and close anyone you don’t need to reduce the phone’s battery consumption.

Android 14

Android 14 was released in early October 2023 (October 1402) in the middle of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro introduction event, and like the previous version, it does not benefit from significant changes in appearance. This is partly because Google has moved to a development cycle that revolves more around small but continuous updates rather than big OS-level releases that only appear once a year.

Despite its unimpressive appearance, Android 14 offers a set of relatively significant features; From a new system for dragging and dropping texts in different applications and using an Android phone as a webcam to new customization options for the lock screen and simulating programs.

Android 14 has been accompanied by several improvements in security and privacy; Including a new integrated settings dashboard to manage all health data and control the access level of individual applications and devices to it.

But the most prominent feature of Android 14, especially in Pixel phones, goes back to artificial intelligence capabilities. For example, the AI ​​Wallpaper feature allows you to create a new wallpaper for your phone using descriptive sentences and changing words. The Live Caption feature is also used to subtitle videos, live videos, and phone conversations. The Summarise feature summarizes long articles so you can read more articles in less time. The Best Take tool will also be very useful for those times when you take a group photo and someone blinks or shakes in the photo.

The new features of Android 14 in the One UI 6 user interface for Samsung phones include small but pleasant improvements such as changes to the Notifications panel and Quick Settings and the direct connection of the lock screen with Modes, which you can read a full review on Zoomit.

The future of Android

Android has come a long way from its very humble beginning when it was the only product of a small startup to become the leading mobile operating system in the world today with 80% of the market share.

Mountain View is still stubbornly committed to Android development, although there are some indications that the company is focusing on other long-term plans that may replace Android in the distant future. For example, in the past few years, Google has been working on an operating system called Fuchsia, which unlike many current operating systems, including Android, is not based on Linux kernels. Fusha is used in the Nest Hub smart display and may support smartphones, tablets, and even notebook and desktop computers in the future. However, it is not yet known whether Fyusha will really come to an end or, like many projects of this company, it will go away and join the Google graveyard

Leaving aside other Google programs, the Android project itself becomes better and more efficient than before with each update, and the future of this operating system is very bright and exciting for application developers, in the shadow of the more widespread artificial intelligence and machine learning; However, one cannot ignore the challenges ahead.

The release of Android updates has improved and become faster thanks to projects like Treble ( Project Treble ) and Mainline ( Project Mainline ), but due to the open source, there is still the problem of fragmentation of the operating system. Additionally, although companies like Samsung and OnePlus offer up to four years of updates for many of their phones, other phone makers end support after two or even a year; For example, Google itself provided only 3 years of software updates for Pixel before Pixel 8; According to Google, this support has now reached 7 years.

Although you can have the best Android experience these days with Pixel phones, the main concern is the innovative designs of other phone makers that are pushing the boundaries of Android’s current capabilities every day. Folding phones equipped with two screens may have been able to open their place in the smartphone market with a luxury price tag and benefit from the “special” feature, but on the other hand, they have also shown the weakness of Android’s performance on larger screens.

Anyway, Android will continue to dominate the mobile operating system market for a few more years. This operating system can be run on both low-end phones and supports luxury and expensive flagships, and this flexibility, along with annual updates, has solidified Android’s position as the leader of the industry for years to come.