Introduction to Android Development

We’ll cover the following

• Android
• Why Android ?
• Android Versions
• API level
• Programming languages

Android

Android is one of the world’s most popular operating systems, supporting everything from 5G mobile devices to touchscreen smartphones and tablets.Android is one of the world’s most popular operating systems, supporting everything from 5G mobile devices to touchscreen smartphones and tablets. This open-source, Linux-based software is used by Google to power over 2.5 billion devices worldwide, accounting for over 80% of smartphone sales.

In September 2008, the first Android-powered device launched in the market. Android dominates the mobile OS industry because of the long list of features it provides. It’s user-friendly, has huge community support, provides a greater extent of customization, and a large number of companies build Android-compatible smartphones.

Android becomes an absolute set of software for all devices like tablets, wearables, set-top boxes, smart TVs, notebooks, etc. Android is growing as more and more manufacturers this turn to Android to power their products. This means that there’s a huge demand for Android developers worldwide. Learning these skills will make you a desirable candidate across the board.

Why Android ?

Android Versions

Google launched the first version of the Android platform on Nov 5, 2007. Since then, Google released a lot of android versions such as Apple Pie, Banana Bread, Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Jellybeans, Kitkat, Lollipop, marshmallow, Nougat, Oreo, Android 12 etc. with extra functionalities and new features.

The following table shows the version details of android which is released by Google from 2007 to date.

What is API level?

API Level is an integer value that uniquely identifies the framework API revision offered by a version of the Android platform.

Code Name	Version	API level	Release date
Apple Pie	Android 1.0	1	September 23, 2008
Banana Bread	Android 1.1	2	February 9, 2009
Cupcake	Android 1.5	3	April 30, 2009
Donut	Android 1.6	4	September 15, 2009
Eclair	Android 2.0 – 2.1	5-7	October 26, 2009
Froyo	Android 2.2 – 2.2.3	8	May 20, 2010
Gingerbread	Android 2.3 – 2.3.4	9-10	December 6, 2010
Honeycomb	Android 3.0.x – 3.2.x	11 – 13	February 22, 2011
Ice Cream Sandwich	Android 4.0 – 4.0.4	14 – 15	October 18, 2011
Jelly Bean	Android 4.1 – 4.1.2	16 – 18	July 9, 2012
Kitkat	Android 4.4 – 4.4.4	19	July 9, 2012
Lollipop	Android 5.0 – 5.1	21 – 22	October 17, 2014
Marshmallow	Android 6.0 – 6.0.1	23	October 5, 2015
Nougat	Android 7.0 – 7.1	24 – 25	August 22, 2016
Oreo	Android 8.0	26	August 21, 2017
Pie	Android 9.0	27	August 6, 2018
Android Q	Android 10.0	29	September 3, 2019
Android 11	Android 11.0	30	September 8, 2020
Android 12	Android 12.0	31	October 4, 2021

Programming languages

There are 3 programming languages and 1 markup language which are used in Android development:

• Java/Kotlin – source code
• Groovy – build scripts
• XML – layout structure and resources

Developing the Android Application using Kotlin is preferred by Google, as Kotlin is made an official language for Android Development, which is developed and maintained by JetBrains. Previously before the Java is considered the official language for Android Development. Kotlin is made official for Android Development in Google I/O 2017.

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Also Read – Java Math Class

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