Android is a cellular working system evolved by Google, based totally on the Linux kernel and designed ordinarily for touchscreen cell gadgets consisting of smartphones and drugs. Android's consumer interface is especially based totally on direct manipulation, using touch gestures that loosely correspond to actual-world actions, consisting of swiping, tapping and pinching, to manipulate on-display screen gadgets, at the side of a virtual keyboard for text enter. similarly to touchscreen gadgets, Google has further advanced Android tv for televisions, Android auto for vehicles, and Android put on for wrist watches, every with a specialized consumer interface. variations of Android are also used on notebooks, game consoles, digital cameras, and other electronics.
first of all developed with the aid of Android Inc., which Google bought in 2005, Android turned into unveiled in 2007, together with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance – a consortium of hardware, software program, and telecommunication corporations devoted to advancing open requirements for cellular gadgets. starting with the primary industrial Android tool in September 2008, the running system has gone thru multiple primary releases, with the cutting-edge model being 7.0 "Nougat", released in August 2016. Android programs ("apps") can be downloaded from the Google Play shop, which functions over 2.7 million apps as of February 2017. Android has been the excellent-promoting OS on drugs when you consider that 2013, and runs at the tremendous majority[a] of smartphones. As of may additionally 2017, Android has two billion month-to-month active customers, and it has the most important set up base of any working system.
Android's source code is launched by means of Google underneath an open supply license, although most Android devices ultimately ship with a mixture of loose and open source and proprietary software program, which include proprietary software required for having access to Google services. Android is famous with generation companies that require a geared up-made, low-value and customizable running system for excessive-tech devices. Its open nature has encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open-supply code as a basis for network-driven tasks, which supply updates to older gadgets, upload new capabilities for advanced users or deliver Android to devices originally shipped with different running systems. The enormous variation of hardware in Android devices reasons tremendous delays for software enhancements, with new variations of the running machine and security patches usually taking months earlier than accomplishing consumers, or from time to time in no way. The fulfillment of Android has made it a target for patent and copyright litigation between era organizations.
