BreakThrough
This article has a corollary to my previous 2–series article titled “Personality behind the Invention of Android Operation System”, published on 7th December 2018 in this Column.
Historically, Android started four years earlier than the time Apple announced its first iPhone and its iOS. This was even before the term “smartphone” was publicly used to refer to a cellular phone with the provision of Internet services.
Precisely, Android Inc was founded in October 2003 in Palo Alto, California. Its four founders were Rich Miner, Nick Sears, Chris White, and Andy Rubin, respectively.
In the year 2007, Apple launched the first iPhone and ushered in a new era in mobile computing. At that time, Google was still working on Android Operating System confidentially and secretly, but in November of the same year, the company slowly started to reveal its plans to contest Apple and other mobile platforms.
Google formed what was called the Open Handset Alliance, a sort of teamwork of experts that included phone makers like HTC and Motorola, chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, and carriers including T-Mobile.
Initially, the Android Operating System (OS) was aimed at improving the operating systems of digital cameras in cellular phones. A phone camera could wirelessly connect to a PC, which would then connect to an “Android Datacenter,” where camera owners could store their photos online on a cloud server. The team was able to achieve the goal and thus, the birth of the Android OS.
The public but non-commercial release of the Android beta was done on November 5, 2007, while the first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released on September 23, 2008.
During the release, then Google Chairman and CEO, Eric Schmidt was quoted saying, “Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks.
“Our vision is that the powerful platform we are unveiling will power thousands of different phone models” – made by different manufacturers. This statement clearly indicated the direction of Google and Open Handset Alliance in their effort to give Apple the keenest competition in the history of “smartphones”.
Between September 2008 and February 2009, Android versions 1 and 1.1 were released. The versions had only basic functions, which included a suite of early Google apps such as Gmail, Maps, Calendar and YouTube, which were integrated into the operating system.
Few months after the release of Android 1.1 in 2009, another release of Android 1.5 code-named “Cupcake” was made. Thus, the tradition of Android version names of Android was born. Each time the OHA releases an Android version; it names the release after a “dessert”.
Android 1.5 is known as “Cupcake”, 1.6 as “Donut”, 2.0/2.1 as “Éclair”, 2.2 as “Froyo” and 2.3 is dubbed “Gingerbread”.
Thereafter, several other versions of the Android OS were ushered in the mobile phones global market.
Since the debut of Android OS over a decade ago, a cutthroat rate race between Apple and Android OS with several innovations in smartphones was noticed.
In every new release, Google was perfecting her acts and continued to release different versions of Android OS on annual basis. From the year 2013 to 2019, Google released seven Android versions; each was an improvement over the previous version.
Android 8.0 and 9.0 were released in the year 2017 and 2018, respectively. Android version 8.0 code-named “Oreo” was launched in 2017. Oreo took the Android platform to a higher level with a ton of multitasking features.
Picture-in-picture and native split-screen both made their debuts in Android Oreo; meaning a user could continue watching his/her favourite show on Netflix while browsing the web.
Android Oreo also gave a whole lot more control over notifications. With Oreo, users were given the ability to turn notification channels on or off, meaning one could get super granular with which notifications show up and what happens when they appear.
In particular, notification channels allowed users to sort notifications based on importance. Also notification-related, Oreo brought notification dots, and the ability to snooze notifications. A few other smaller features showed up in Oreo, too. For example, Oreo also gave an auto-enable Wi-Fi, a smart text selector, and so on.
The 2018 version of Google’s Android OS was Android 9 Pie. This version embraced circles, rounded edges, artificial intelligence, and it genuinely attempts to care for the user’s digital wellbeing. Dozens of small delectable features add up to a satisfying slice of pie that makes amiable to millions of Android fans.
Adding to aesthetic change is the visual interface pie-shaped circle that was more colourful. This makes the OS feel friendlier and fluid to the user. Perhaps the most drastic change, however, lies in the navigation menu.
Gone are the Android navigation buttons in favour of a single, pill-shaped icon. Like iOS on the iPhone X, Android is now all about gesture navigation: Using swipes instead of taps on icons. There are Slices and Actions Android Pie.
The latter predicts actions a user is about to perform, and it will inject two buttons in the app drawer. For example, if a user is about to text a friend, it might offer a quick shortcut that can tap on what will open up a default messaging app and jump straight to the contact.
“Actions” needs some time to learn user’s routines, but when it does, it offers genuinely useful shortcuts that save time and increase communication efficiency. Slices add more details when a user searches for content and apps. Artificial Intelligence is not just a buzzword in Android Pie — it really works.
Android 10 is the tenth major release and the 17th version of the Android mobile operating system. It was released on September 3, 2019.
What is the main feature of this version of Android?
To be continued next week.
Prof Othman writes from NAERLS, ABU Zaria and can be reached via email: mkothman@gmail.com.
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