Android version (Android's life journey.)

The version history of the Android mobile operating system started with the release of the Android beta in November 2007. The first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released in September 2008. Android is currently under development by Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). Till now they have number of updates.

Since April 2009, Android versions have been developed under a confectionery-themed code name and released in alphabetical order; the exceptions are versions 1.0 and 1.1 as they were not released under specific code names :-

• Alpha (1.0)
• Beta (1.1)
• Cupcake (1.5)
• Donut (1.6)
• Eclair (2.0–2.1)
• Froyo (2.2–2.2.3)
• Gingerbread (2.3–2.3.7)
• Honeycomb (3.0–3.2.6)
• Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0–4.0.4)
• Jelly Bean (4.1–4.3.1)
• KitKat (4.4–4.4.4)
• Lollipop (5.0–5.0.2)

On September 3, 2013, Google announced that one billion activated devices now use the Android OS worldwide. The most recent major Android update is Lollipop 5.0, which was released on November 3, 2014.

Pre-commercial release versions (2007–2008)
 

Alpha
There were at least two internal releases inside Google and the OHA before the Beta was released in November 2007. For the milestones in internal releases, names of fictional robots were chosen, with various releases code-named "Astro Boy", "Bender" and "R2-D2". Dan Morrill created some of the first mascot logos, but the current green Android logo was designed by Irina Blok.The project manager, Ryan Gibson, conceived of the confections naming scheme that has been used for the majority of the public releases, starting with Android 1.5.

Beta
The Beta was released on November 5, 2007, while the software development kit (SDK) was released on November 12, 2007. The November 5 date is popularly celebrated as Android's "birthday".

The following tables show the release dates and key features of all Android operating system till 31 Nov 2015, listed chronologically by their official application programming interface (API) levels.

Operating Sys Name	Ver.	Release Date	Features
Android 1.1	1.1	9-Feb-2009	Details and reviews available when a user searches for businesses on Maps
			Longer in-call screen timeout default when using the speakerphone, plus ability to show/hide dialpad
			Ability to save attachments in messages
			Support added for marquee in system layouts
Android 1.5 Cupcake	1.5	27-april-2009	Support for third-party virtual keyboards with text prediction and user dictionary for custom words
			Support for Widgets – miniature application views that can be embedded in other applications (such as the Home screen) and receive periodic updates.
			Video recording and playback in MPEG-4 and 3GP formats
			Auto-pairing and stereo support for Bluetooth (A2DP and AVRCP profiles)
			Copy and paste features in web browser
			User pictures shown for Favorites in Contacts
			Specific date/time stamp shown for events in call log, and one-touch access to a contact card from call log event
			Animated screen transitions
			Auto-rotation option
			New stock boot animation
			Ability to upload videos to YouTube
			Ability to upload photos to Picasa
Android 1.6 Donut	1.6	15-Sep-2009	Voice and text entry search enhanced to include bookmark history, contacts, and the web
			Ability for developers to include their content in search results
			Multi-lingual speech synthesis engine to allow any Android application to "speak" a string of text
			Easier searching and ability to view app screenshots in Android Market
			Gallery, camera and camcorder more fully integrated, with faster camera access
			Ability for users to select multiple photos for deletion
			Updated technology support for CDMA/EVDO, 802.1x, VPNs, and a text-to-speech engine
			Support for WVGA screen resolutions
			Speed improvements in searching and camera applications
			Expanded Gesture framework and new GestureBuilder development tool
Android 2.0 Eclair	2.0	26-Oct-2009	Expanded Account sync, allowing users to add multiple accounts to a device for synchronization of email and contacts
			Microsoft Exchange email support, with combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page
			Bluetooth 2.1 support
			Ability to tap a Contacts photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person
			Ability to search all saved SMS and MMS messages, with delete oldest messages in a conversation automatically deleted when a defined limit is reached
			Numerous new camera features, including flash support, digital zoom, scene mode, white balance, color effect and macro focus
			Improved typing speed on virtual keyboard, with smarter dictionary that learns from word usage and includes contact names as suggestions
			Refreshed browser UI with bookmark thumbnails, double-tap zoom and support for HTML5
			Calendar agenda view enhanced, showing attending status for each invitee, and ability to invite new guests to events
			Optimized hardware speed and revamped UI
			Support for more screen sizes and resolutions, with better contrast ratio
			Improved Google Maps 3.1.2
			MotionEvent class enhanced to track multi-touch events.
			Addition of live wallpapers, allowing the animation of home-screen background images to show movement
Android 2.0.1 Eclair	2.0.1	3-Dec-2009	Minor API changes, bug fixes and framework behavioral changes
Android 2.1 Eclair	2.1	12-Jan-2010	Minor amendments to the API and bug fixes
Android 2.2–2.2.3	2.2	20-May-2010	Speed, memory, and performance optimizations.
			Additional application speed improvements, implemented through JIT compilation.
			Integration of Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine into the Browser application
			Support for the Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) service, enabling push notifications
			Improved Microsoft Exchange support, including security policies, auto-discovery, GAL look-up, calendar synchronization and remote wipe
			Improved application launcher with shortcuts to Phone and Browser applications
			USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot functionality.
			Option to disable data access over mobile network.
			Updated Market application with batch and automatic update features.
			Quick switching between multiple keyboard languages and their dictionaries.
			Support for Bluetooth-enabled car and desk docks
			Support for numeric and alphanumeric passwords
			Support for file upload fields in the Browser application
			The browser now shows all frames of animated GIFs instead of just the first frame only
			Support for installing applications to the expandable memory
			Adobe Flash support
			Support for high-PPI displays (up to 320 ppi), such as 4" 720p screens.
			Gallery allows users to view picture stacks using a zoom gesture
	2.2.1	18-Jan-2011	Bug fixes, security updates and performance improvements
	2.2.2	22-Jan-2011	Minor bug fixes, including SMS routing issues that affected the Nexus One.
	2.2.3	21-Nov-2011	Two security patches
Android 2.3–2.3.2 Gingerbread	2.3	6-Dec-2010	Updated user interface design with increased simplicity and speed
			Support for extra-large screen sizes and resolutions (WXGA and higher).
			Native support for SIP VoIP internet telephony
			Faster, more intuitive text input in virtual keyboard, with improved accuracy, better suggested text and voice input mode
			Enhanced copy/paste functionality, allowing users to select a word by press-hold, copy, and paste
			Support for Near Field Communication (NFC), allowing the user to read an NFC tag embedded in a poster, sticker, or advertisement
			New audio effects such as reverb, equalization, headphone virtualization, and bass boost
			New Download Manager, giving users easy access to any file downloaded from the browser, email, or another application
			Support for multiple cameras on the device, including a front-facing camera, if available
			Support for WebM/VP8 video playback, and AAC audio encoding
			Improved power management with a more active role in managing applications that are keeping the device awake for too long
			Enhanced support for native code development
			Switched from YAFFS to ext4 on newer devices.
			Audio, graphical, and input enhancements for game developers
			Concurrent garbage collection for increased performance
			Native support for more sensors (such as gyroscopes and barometers)
	2.3.1	1-Dec-2010	Improvements and bug fixes for the Google Nexus S
	2.3.2	1-Jan-2011	Improvements and bug fixes for the Google Nexus S
Android 2.3.3–2.3.7 Gingerbread	2.3.3	9-Feb-2011	Several improvements and API fixes
	2.3.4	28-april-2011	Support for voice or video chat using Google Talk
			Open Accessory Library support. Open Accessory was introduced in 3.1 (Honeycomb) but the Open Accessory Library grants 2.3.4 added support when connecting to a USB peripheral with compatible software and a compatible application on the device.
			Switched the default encryption for SSL from AES256-SHA to RC4-MD5.
	2.3.5	25-Jul-2011	Improved network performance for the Nexus S 4G, among other fixes and improvements
			Fixed Bluetooth bug on Samsung Galaxy S
			Improved Gmail application
			Shadow animations for list scrolling
			Camera software enhancements.
			Improved battery efficiency
	2.3.6	2-Sep-2011	Fixed a voice search bug
			(The 2.3.6 update had the side-effect of impairing the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality of many Canadian Nexus S phones. Google acknowledged this problem and fixed it in late September.)
	2.3.7	21-Sep-2011	Google Wallet support for the Nexus S 4G
Android 3.0 Honeycomb	3.0	22-Feb-2011	Optimized tablet support with a new “holographic” user interface
			Added System Bar, featuring quick access to notifications, status, and soft navigation buttons, available at the bottom of the screen
			Added Action Bar, giving access to contextual options, navigation, widgets, or other types of content at the top of the screen
			Simplified multitasking – tapping Recent Applications in the System Bar allows users to see snapshots of the tasks underway and quickly jump from one application to another
			Redesigned keyboard, making typing fast, efficient and accurate on larger screen sizes
			Simplified, more intuitive copy/paste interface
			Multiple browser tabs replacing browser windows, plus form auto-fill and a new “incognito” mode allowing anonymous browsing
			Quick access to camera exposure, focus, flash, zoom, front-facing camera, time-lapse, and other camera features
			Ability to view albums and other collections in full-screen mode in Gallery, with easy access to thumbnails for other photos
			New two-pane Contacts UI and Fast Scroll to let users easily organize and locate contacts
			New two-pane Email UI to make viewing and organizing messages more efficient, allowing users to select one or more messages
			Hardware acceleration
			Support for multi-core processors
			Ability to encrypt all user data
			HTTPS stack improved with Server Name Indication (SNI)
			Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE; kernel module)
			Applications' write access to secondary storage (memory cards on devices with internal primary storage) is disabled outside of designated, app-specific directories, while full access to internal primary storage is still allowed through a separate application-level permission.
Android 3.1 Honeycomb	3.1	10-May-2011	UI refinements
			Connectivity for USB accessories (USB On-The-Go).
			Expanded Recent Applications list
			Resizable Home screen widgets
			Support for external keyboards and pointing devices
			Support for joysticks and gamepads
			Support for FLAC audio playback.
			High-performance Wi-Fi lock, maintaining high-performance Wi-Fi connections when device screen is off
			Support for HTTP proxy for each connected Wi-Fi access point
Android 3.2 Honeycomb	3.2	15-Jul-2011	Improved hardware support, including optimizations for a wider range of tablets
			Increased ability of applications to access files on the SD card, e.g. for synchronization
			Compatibility display mode for applications that have not been optimized for tablet screen resolutions
			New display support functions, giving developers more control over display appearance on different Android devices.
	3.2.1	20-Sep-2011	Bug fixes and minor security, stability and Wi-Fi improvements
			Update to Android Market with automatic updates and easier-to-read Terms and Conditions text
			Update to Google Books
			Improved Adobe Flash support in browser
			Improved Chinese handwriting prediction
	3.2.2	30-Aug-2011	Bug fixes and other minor improvements for the Motorola Xoom 4G
	3.2.3		Bug fixes and other minor improvements for the Motorola Xoom and Motorola Xoom 4G
	3.2.4	1-Dec-2011	"Pay as You Go" support for 3G and 4G tablets
	3.2.5	1-Jan-2012	Bug fixes and other minor improvements for the Motorola Xoom and Motorola Xoom 4G
	3.2.6	1-Feb-2012	Fixed data connectivity issues when coming out of airplane mode on the US 4G Motorola Xoom
Android 4.0–4.0.2 Ice Cream Sandwich	4.0	18-Oct-2011	Major refinements to the "Holo" interface with new Roboto font family
			Soft buttons from Android 3.x are now available for use on phones
			Separation of widgets in a new tab, listed in a similar manner to applications
			Easier-to-create folders, with a drag-and-drop style
			Improved visual voicemail with the ability to speed up or slow down voicemail messages
			Pinch-to-zoom functionality in the calendar
			Integrated screenshot capture (accomplished by holding down the Power and Volume-Down buttons)
			Improved error correction on the keyboard
			Ability to access applications directly from lock screen
			Improved copy and paste functionality
			Better voice integration and continuous, real-time speech to text dictation
			Face Unlock, a feature that allows users to unlock handsets using facial recognition software
			Automatic syncing of browser with users' Chrome bookmarks
			Data Usage section in settings that lets users set warnings when they approach a certain usage limit, and disable data use when the limit is exceeded
			Ability to shut down applications from the recent apps list with a swipe.
			Improved camera application with zero shutter lag, time lapse settings, panorama mode, and the ability to zoom while recording
			Built-in photo editor
			New gallery layout, organized by location and person
			Refreshed "People" application with social network integration, status updates and hi-res images
			Android Beam, a near-field communication feature allowing the rapid short-range exchange of web bookmarks, contact info, directions, YouTube videos and other data
			Support for the WebP image format.
			Hardware acceleration of the UI.
			Wi-Fi Direct.
			1080p video recording for stock Android devices
			Android VPN Framework (AVF), and TUN (but not TAP) kernel module. Prior to 4.0, VPN software required rooted Android.
	4.0.1	21-Oct-2011	Fixed minor bugs for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
	4.0.2	28-Nov-2011	Fixed minor bugs on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, the US launch of which was later delayed until December 2011
			(For Canadian consumers, 4.0.2 reportedly created a bug on the Galaxy Nexus that crashed the application market when users attempted to view details of any Android application. It also inadvertently reduced the NFC capabilities of the Nexus phone.)
Android 4.0.3–4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich	4.0.3	16-Dec-2011	Numerous bug fixes and optimizations
			Improvements to graphics, databases, spell-checking and Bluetooth functionality
			New APIs for developers, including a social stream API in the Contacts provider
			Calendar provider enhancements
			New camera applications enhancing video stabilization and QVGA resolution
			Accessibility refinements such as improved content access for screen readers.
	4.0.4	29-Mar-2012	Stability improvements
			Better camera performance
			Smoother screen rotation
			Improved phone number recognition.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean	4.1	9-Jul-2012	Smoother user interface:
			Vsync timing across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework, including application rendering, touch events, screen composition and display refresh
			Triple buffering in the graphics pipeline
			Enhanced accessibility
			Bi-directional text and other language support
			User-installable keyboard maps
			Expandable notifications
			Ability to turn off notifications on an application-specific basis
			Shortcuts and widgets can automatically be re-arranged or re-sized to allow new items to fit on home screens
			Bluetooth data transfer for Android Beam
			Tablets with smaller screens now use an expanded version of the interface layout and home screen used by phones.
			Improved camera application
			Multichannel audio
			The Fraunhofer FDK AAC codec becomes standard in Android, adding AAC 5.1 channel encoding/decoding.
			USB audio (for external sound DACs)
			Audio chaining (also known as gapless playback)
			Ability for other launchers to add widgets from the application drawer without requiring root access
	4.1.1	11-Jul-2012	Fixed a bug on the Nexus 7 regarding the inability to change screen orientation in any application
	4.1.2	9-Oct-2012	Lock/home screen rotation support for the Nexus 7.
			One-finger gestures to expand/collapse notifications.
			Bug fixes and performance enhancements
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean	4.2	13-Nov-2012	Lock screen improvements, including widget support and the ability to swipe directly to camera.
			Notification power controls ("Quick Settings")
			"Daydream" screensavers, showing information when idle or docked
			Multiple user accounts (tablets only)
			Rewritten Bluetooth stack, switching from Bluez to Broadcom open source BlueDroid,[105] allowing improved support for multiple displays and wireless display (Miracast)
			Native right-to-left, always-on VPN and application verification. A new NFC stack was added at the same time.
			Accessibility improvements: triple-tap to magnify the entire screen, pan and zoom with two fingers. Speech output and Gesture Mode navigation for blind users
			New clock application with built-in world clock, stop watch and timer
			All devices now use the same interface layout, previously adapted from phones on 4.1 for smaller tablets (with centered software buttons, the system bar at the top of the screen, and a home screen with a dock and centered application menu), regardless of screen size
			Increased number of extended notifications and Actionable Notifications for more applications, allowing users to respond to certain notifications within the notification bar and without launching the application directly
			SELinux
			Premium SMS confirmation.
			Group Messaging
	4.2.1	27-Nov-2012	Fixed a bug in the People application where December was not displayed on the date selector when adding an event to a contact
			Added Bluetooth gamepads and joysticks as supported HID (Human interface device)
	4.2.2	11-Feb-2013	Fixed Bluetooth audio streaming bugs
			Long-pressing the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth icons in Quick Settings now toggles the on/off state
			New download notifications, which now shows the percentage and estimated time remaining for active application downloads
			New sounds for wireless charging and low battery
			New Gallery application animation allows faster loading
			USB debug whitelist
			Bug fixes and performance enhancements
Android 4.3 Jelly Bean	4.3	24-Jul-2013	Bluetooth low energy support.
			Bluetooth Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) 1.3 support
			OpenGL ES 3.0 support, allowing for improved game graphics.
			Restricted access mode for new user profiles.
			Filesystem write performance improvement by running fstrim command while device is idle.
			Dial pad auto-complete in the Phone application.
			Improvements to Photo Sphere.
			Reworked camera UI, previously introduced on Google Play edition phones.
			Addition of "App Ops", a fine-grained application permissions control system (hidden by default).
			4K resolution support.
			Many security enhancements, performance enhancements, and bug fixes.
			System-level support for geofencing and Wi-Fi scanning APIs.
			Background Wi-Fi location still runs even when Wi-Fi is turned off.
			Developer logging and analyzing enhancements.
			Added support for five more languages.
			Improved digital rights management (DRM) APIs.
			Right-to-left (RTL) languages now supported.
			Clock in the status bar disappears if clock is selected as lockscreen widget.
	4.3.1	3-Oct-2013	Bug fixes and small tweaks for the Nexus 7 LTE.
Android 4.4 KitKat	4.4	31-Oct-2013	Refreshed interface with white elements instead of blue
			Clock no longer shows bold hours, all digits are thin. The H, M, and S markings for the stopwatch and timer have been removed, leaving just the numbers.
			Ability for applications to trigger translucency in the navigation and status bars.
			Ability for applications to use "immersive mode" to keep the navigation and status bars hidden while maintaining user interaction.
			Action overflow menu buttons are always visible, even on devices with a "Menu" key, which was officially deprecated by Android 4.0.
			Optimizations for performance on devices with lower specifications, including zRAM support and "low RAM" device API.
			Wireless printing capability.
			NFC host card emulation, enabling a device to replace smart cards.
			WebViews now based on Chromium engine (feature parity with Chrome for Android 30)
			Expanded functionality for notification listener services.
			Public API for developing and managing text messaging clients.
			New framework for UI transitions
			Storage Access Framework, an API allowing apps to retrieve files in a consistent manner. As part of the framework, a new system file picker allows users to access files from various sources (including those exposed by apps, such as online storage services).
			Sensor batching, step detector and counter APIs.
			Settings application now makes it possible to select default text messaging and home (launcher) application.
			Audio tunneling, audio monitoring and loudness enhancer.
			Built-in screen recording feature (primarily for developers, as usage of ADB is required).
			Native infrared blaster API.
			Expanded accessibility APIs and system-level closed captioning settings.
			Android Runtime (ART) introduced as a new experimental application runtime environment, not enabled by default, as a replacement for the Dalvik virtual machine.
			Bluetooth Message Access Profile (MAP) support.
			Disabled access to battery statistics by third-party applications.
			Settings application no longer uses a multi-pane layout on devices with larger screens.
			Wi-Fi and mobile data activity (TX/RX) indicators are moved to quick settings.
			Browser text wrap is disabled.
	4.4.1	5-Dec-2013	Improvements to auto focus, white balance and HDR+ for the Nexus 5 camera.
			Better application compatibility for the experimental Android Runtime (ART).
			Camera application now loads Google+ Photos instead of Gallery when swiping away from the camera view.
			Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
	4.4.2	9-Dec-2013	Further security enhancements and bug fixes
			Removal of the "App Ops" application permissions control system, introduced in Android 4.3
	4.4.3	2-Jun-2014	Refreshed Dialer app interface.
			Updated the Chromium based WebView to version 33 (screencasting to DevTools, HTML5 Canvas hardware acceleration performance improvements, vibration API, HTML5 form validation, HTML5 datalist).
			Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
	4.4.4	19-Jun-2014	CVE-2014-0224 fixed, eliminating an OpenSSL man-in-the-middle vulnerability.
Android 4.4 KitKat with wearable extensions	4.4w	Announced	Same as Android 4.4 KitKat, but with wearable extensions added.
Android 5.0 Lollipop	5.0	12-Nov-2014	Android Runtime (ART) with ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation and improved garbage collection (GC), replacing Dalvik that uses just-in-time (JIT) compilation.
			Support for 64-bit CPUs.
			OpenGL ES 3.1 and Android Extension Pack (AEP) on supported GPU configurations.
			Recent activities screen with tasks instead of applications, up to a configured maximum of tasks per application.
			Vector drawables, which scale without losing definition.
			Support for print previews.
			Material design style, bringing improvements to user interface.
			Refreshed lock screen.
			Refreshed notification tray and quick settings pull-down.
			Project Volta, for battery life improvements.
			Searches can be performed within the system settings for quicker access to particular settings.
			Lock screen provides shortcuts to application and notification settings.
			Guest logins and multiple user accounts are available on more devices, such as phones.
			Audio input and output through USB devices.
			Third-party applications regain the ability to read and modify data located anywhere on external storage, such as on SD cards.
			Pinning of an application's screen for restricted user activity.
			Recently used applications are remembered even after restarting the device.
			WebViews receive updates independently through Google Play for security reasons, instead of relying on system-wide vendor updates.
			Addition of 15 new languages: Basque, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese (Hong Kong), Galician, Icelandic, Kannada, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Sinhala, Tamil and Telugu.
			Tap and Go allows users to quickly migrate to a new Android device, using NFC and Bluetooth to transfer Google Account details, configuration settings, user data and installed applications.
			A flashlight-style application is included, working on supported devices with a camera flash.
			User-customizable priorities for application notifications.
			A few new bugs, including introducing a memory leak that makes devices with less than 2GB of RAM lose stability.
	5.0.1	2-Dec-2014	A few bugfixes, including resolving issues with video playback and password failures handling
	5.0.2	19-Dec-2014	Fixes a bug with TRIM support, which prevented devices from the nightly on-charger cleanups of file system allocations if the device was turned off while being charged, or if it was charged during the day
			Changes how alarms wake the CPU, and how alarms compete for system resources

Source : Wikipedia

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