Android (operating system)

Android is an operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen-based mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Android has historically been developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance, but its most widely used version is primarily developed by Google. First released in 2008, Android is the world's most widely used operating system; it is the most used operating system for smartphones, and also most used for tablets; the latest version, released on June 10, 2025, is Android 16.

At its core, the operating system is known as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and is free and open-source software (FOSS) primarily licensed under the Apache License. However, most devices run the proprietary Android 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. Firebase Cloud Messaging is used for push notifications. 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 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, and Meta Horizon OS for VR headsets.

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 46% of the global operating system market.

Android Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California, in October 2003 by Andy Rubin and Chris White, with Rich Miner and Nick Sears joining later. Rubin had previously been the creator of the T-Mobile Sidekick under his previous company Danger, Inc. Rubin and White started out to build an operating system for digital cameras viz FotoFrame. The company name was changed to Android as Rubin already owned the domain name android.com. After having built a prototype internally known as the "Fadden demo" predominantly by purchasing licensing agreements for most of the software components built around a custom JavaScript front-end, the company failed to convince investors, and so in April 2004 they pivoted to building an operating system for phones at the suggestion of Nick Sears, as a rival to Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile. Rubin pitched the Android project as having "tremendous potential in developing smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner's location and preferences". Due to difficulty attracting investors early on, Android faced potential eviction from its office space. Steve Perlman, a close friend of Rubin, brought him $10,000 in cash in an envelope, and shortly thereafter wired an undisclosed amount as seed funding. Perlman refused a stake in the company, and has stated "I did it because I believed in the thing, and I wanted to help Andy."

In 2005, Rubin tried to negotiate deals with Samsung and HTC. Shortly afterwards, Google acquired the company in July of that year for at least $50 million; this was Google's "best deal ever" according to Google's then-vice president of corporate development, David Lawee, in 2010. Android's key employees, including Rubin, Miner, Sears, and White, joined Google as part of the acquisition. Not much was known about the secretive Android Inc. at the time, with the company having provided few details other than that it was making software for mobile phones. At Google, the team led by Rubin developed a mobile device platform powered by the Linux kernel. Google marketed the platform to handset makers and carriers on the promise of providing a flexible, upgradeable system. Google had "lined up a series of hardware components and software partners and signaled to carriers that it was open to various degrees of cooperation".^{[attribution needed]}

Speculation about Google's intention to enter the mobile communications market continued to build through December 2006. An early prototype had a close resemblance to a BlackBerry phone, with no touchscreen and a physical QWERTY keyboard, but the arrival of Apple's 2007 iPhone meant that Android "had to go back to the drawing board". Google later changed its Android specification documents to state that "Touchscreens will be supported", although "the Product was designed with the presence of discrete physical buttons as an assumption, therefore a touchscreen cannot completely replace physical buttons". By 2008, both Nokia and BlackBerry announced touch-based smartphones to rival the iPhone 3G, and Android's focus eventually switched to just touchscreens. The first commercially available smartphone running Android was the HTC Dream, also known as T-Mobile G1, announced on September 23, 2008.

On November 5, 2007, the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of technology companies including Google, device manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung, wireless carriers such as Sprint and T-Mobile, and chipset makers such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, unveiled itself, with a goal to develop "the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices". Within a year, the Open Handset Alliance faced two other open source competitors, the Symbian Foundation and the LiMo Foundation, the latter also developing a Linux-based mobile operating system like Google. In September 2007, Google had filed several patent applications in the area of mobile telephony.

On September 23, 2008, Android was introduced by Andy Rubin, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Cole Brodman, Christopher Schlaeffer and Peter Chou at a press conference in a New York City subway station.