This article on Android will give you knowledge about lots of things included in Android. Android is a very vast and fastest-growing operating system. Everywhere everyone is using Android, it is available on most smartphones these days. Reading this article you will get to know details of Android like Android, its features, its versions till now, its architecture, and also its components. So read the article and you will get knowledge of Android.
Table of Contents
What is Android
Android is an operating system, which is based on Linux and it is an open-source operating system that is generally used in smartphones, computers, tablets, etc. It is a best-selling operating system across the globe on the mobile platform. It spread more than three-fourths of the global market share by last year. And in the present time, it is also growing very fast.
Google was the first to sponsor the android in the starting phase and later it acquired the whole company. Android’s feature of being user-friendly, providing a greater extent of customization, and also the huge community made the smartphone company build Android-compatible smartphones. When Android was in trend in its initial stage, at that time it was thought that it was just a mobile operating system but later it became a software that was supported in other devices like tablets, wearables, smart TVs, notebooks, set-top boxes, etc.
Android features
As we know it is an open-source operating system so on the basis of our requirements we can customize it. It supports 2D and 3D graphics. It supports connectivity with wifi Bluetooth so we can pair our devices with other devices using apps. With the help of android os, we can access the hardware components like hardware accelerometer and GPS. To perform playback or recording using a camera and microphone It provides support for multimedia hardware control.
- Android is an open-source project and because of it can customize it based on the requirement.
- It is an operating system that supports many types of connectivity for CDMA, GSM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc for telephonic conversation or internet access(and data transfer).
- It supports a wide range of media files like AVI, MKV, FLV, MPEG4, etc. to play or record different types of audio and video.
- Apart from media files and connectivity, it also supports many types of image formats like JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, etc.
- It supports 2D as well as 3D and Virtual Reality Graphics. And currently developed Augmented Reality (VR).
- It has a Webkit layout integrated based on the web browser to support User Interfaces like HTML5, CSS3
- It contains APIs to support location-like services such as GPS.
Android Versions
The first version of Android launched by Google was in the year 2007. After that, Google launched many versions such as Apple Pie, Banana, Cupcake, Bread, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, KitKat, Jellybeans, Lollipop, marshmallow, nougat, Oreo, etc. with lots of new features. The latest version is the Android 11 “R”.
Android architecture
Which mainly consists of a software stack. Android OS is divided into the following layered structure.
- Linux kernel
- Hardware abstraction layer
- Android Runtime
- Libraries
- Application Framework Layer
Linux kernel – For various hardware support, it contains all low-level drivers. Core system services like network stack, model driving, memory, process management, threading, etc it’s all managed by releasing Android runtime on the Linux kernel.
Hardware abstraction layer- The Hardware and Software stack is abstracted through using this layer.
Android runtime – helps apps to run in a contrived environment. DEX files which is a type of bytecode are specifically designed for Android which is very helpful to Android runtime to manage memory very efficiently.
Libraries- it is set up on the top of the Linux kernel that includes libc, open-source web browser engine WebKit, and SQLite database which is a useful repository for storage and sharing of application data, playing and recording audio and video.
Application Framework – Application Framework provides high-level services like Java class on the application. Developers are allowed to use services in the applications
Components of Android Application
Components of Android applications are the basis of an application or we can say that the building blocks of an application are Android components application. The components of the Android application are given below-
Activities – For interacting with an app it acts as an entry point for the user. It represents a single screen with a UI. While an Android screen may contain more than one activity or screen.
Broadcast Receiver – They manage the communication between the Android OS and applications. It responds to messages coming from other applications or systems.
Content Provider – It helps in managing data and database management issues. The content provider works when it gets a request, then it supplies components to others.
Intents – Intents are used for starting an activity, or service and for delivering a broadcast. It is a small object that activity can pass to an Android OS. It tells the operating system about some activity that is required.
Services – It will help run the apps in the background while using other apps at the same time through which we get a long-running operation based on our requirements.
Two types of services are provided in Android: local services and remote services.
Android App Development Languages
In Android, the applications are developed using different languages. Like Java, Kortlin C++,C#
Java – Java was the most used programming language and it was the first language that was officially used for Android app development. Many apps on the Play Store are made using Java.
Kotlin – After Java, Google has now declared Kortlin as the official language for Android app development. It is used as an alternative to Java and is a cross-platform programming language. It runs on a Java virtual machine(JVM)
Conclusion
Android is an open-source operating system that is used very widely among all other mobile operating systems. It is primarily used for all touchscreen devices. It provides a beautiful and intuitive interface to the user. It is a large developer and the most used operating system.
