Android

Android versions comparison

Android versions comparison

Name-Version	user features	developer features
Pie/Android 9 (2018 Aug 9/API-28)	User interface updates: Rounded corners across the UI Quick settings menu change. Notification bar, the clock has moved to the left. The “dock” now has a semi-transparent background. New transitions when switching between apps, or within apps Volume slider updated Richer messaging notifications: with full conversation, large images, smart replies The power options now has a “screenshot” button Biometric authentication can now be disabled only once
Oreo/Android 8.1 (2017 Dec 5/API-27)	Show battery level in “Quick Settings” for devices connected via Bluetooth Navigation buttons dim when not in use UI updates to ‘Power Off’ and ‘Restart’ Toast messages are now white in color with same existing transparency Automatic light and dark themes Emoji updates (ie: Hamburger move the cheese slice position)	Neural networks API for artificial intelligence Shared memory API WallpaperColors API Programmatic Safe Browsing actions Autofill framework updates Go Edition: lightweight Android distribution for devices with less than 1 GB of RAM
Oreo/Android 8.0 (2017 Aug 21/API-26)	PIP: Picture-in-Picture with resizable windows Android Instant apps Improved notifications system Improved system settings Lock screen redesign
Nougat/Android 7.1.2 (2017 Apr 4/API-25)	Battery usage alerts Nexus and Pixel specific improvements
Nougat/Android 7.1.1 (2016 Dec 5/API-25)	Long press on the app icon enable new launch actions The default keyboard allows now to send GIFs directly New set of emojis
Nougat/Android 7.1 (2016 Oct 4/API-25)	Daydream Virtual Reality mode Night Light Storage manager improvements Performance improvements for Touch and Display managements Option to enable fingerprint swipe down gesture Seamless system updates	Shortcut manager APIs Support Circular app icons Keyboard image insertion VR thread scheduling improvements Enhanced wallpaper metadata Multi-endpoint call support Source type support for Visual Voicemail Carrier config options to manage video telephony
Nougat/Android 7.0 (2016 Aug 22/API-24)	Unicode 9.0 emoji Better multitasking Multi-window mode (PIP, Freeform window) Seamless system updates (with dual system partition) Better performance and code size thanks to new JIT Compiler	Sustained Performance Mode (SPM) API Vulkan 3D rendering API Daydream virtual reality platform
Marshmallow/Android 6.0.1 (2015 Dec 7/API-23)	New emojis
Marshmallow/Android 6 (2015 Oct 5/API-23)	USB Type-C support Fingerprint Authentication support Better battery life with “deep sleep” Permissions dashboard Android Pay MIDI support Google Now improvements	Custom Chrome Tabs for better in app browser support App Permissions management update
Lollipop/Android 5.1.1 (2015 Apr 21/API-22)	Speed improvement Bug fixes
Lollipop/Android 5.1 (2015 Mar 9/API-22)	Multiple SIM cards support Quick settings shortcuts to join Wi-Fi networks or control Bluetooth devices Lock protection if lost or stolen High Definition voice call Stability and performance enhancements
Lollipop/Android 5.0.2 (2014 Dec 19/API-21)	Performance improvements and bug fixes
Lollipop/Android 5.0.1 (2014 Dec 2/API-21)	bug fixes, fix issues with video playback and password failures
Lollipop/Android 5.0 (2014 Oct 17/API-21)	New design (Material design) Speed improvement Battery consumption improvement	Several new API Tracking battery consumption app
KitKat/Android 4.4.4 (2014 Jun 23/API-19)	Fix Heartbleed / OpenSSL vulnerability
KitKat/Android 4.4.3 (2014 Apr 14/API-19)	Bug fixes Enable Sprint Spark band 26 and band 41
KitKat/Android 4.4.2 (2013 Dec 9/API-19)	Bug fixes Security enhancements
KitKat/Android 4.4.1 (2013 Dec 5/API-19)	Bug fixes Enhance the camera on the Nexus 5
KitKat/Android 4.4 (2013 Oct 31/API-19)	Screen recording New Translucent system UI Enhanced notification access System-wide settings for closed captioning Performance improvements	Public API for SMS management. Improved memory usage Security enhancements (SELinux enforcing mode, new cryptographic algorithms, VPN per user…) NFC Host Card Emulation (for wireless payment, loyalty programs…) Printing Framework Storage Access Framework Hardware Sensor Batching Full-screen immersive mode GLES2.0 SurfaceFlinger Chromium WebView Audio tunneling to DSP Audio monitoring Wi-Fi certified Miracast New Bluetooth profile IR Blasters API Wi-Fi Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS) support Tools for analyzing memory use (procstats, on-device memory status and profiling)
Jelly Bean/Android 4.3 (2013 Jul 24/API-18)	Dial pad auto-complete Photo Sphere enhancements Camera app UI updated 4K resolution support Ability to create restricted profiles for tablets Hebrew and Arabic right-to-left (RTL) support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support Bluetooth Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) 1.3 support Security and performance enhancements	OpenGL for Embedded Systems 3.0 graphics support Logging and analyzing enhancements Wi-Fi scanning API Improved DRM (digital rights management) API VP8 encoding
Jelly Bean/Android 4.2.2 (2013 Feb 11/API-17)	Allow toggling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth state in Quick Settings using long-press Shows the percentage and estimated time remaining in the active download notifications Wireless charging and low battery sounds changed Gallery app updated for faster loading with new image transition Performance enhancements and bug fixes (Bluetooth A2DP audio streaming fix…)	Secure USB debugging (allow debugging to authenticated computers only)
Jelly Bean/Android 4.2.1 (2012 Nov 27/API-17)	Fix missing december bug in the People app Add support for Bluetooth gamepads and joysticks HID devices
Jelly Bean/Android 4.2 (2012 Nov 13/API-17)	Lockscreen widgets 360 degree images with Photo Sphere Gesture Typing, for faster typing Wireless display with Miracast Daydream to display information when idle or docked Multi-user for tablets	vsync timing Triple buffering reduced touch latency CPU input boost Native RTL support – mirrors the display from manifest prop External display support – Display Manager Nested fragments Renderscript Compute – run tasks on the GPU (supported devices) Renderscript ScriptGroups, built-in intrinsics like blur, FilterScript is a subset of Renderscript made for high performance image processing
Jelly Bean/Android 4.1.2 (2012 Oct 9/API-16)	Enable Home screen rotation Fix bugs and enhance performances
Jelly Bean/Android 4.1.1 (2012 Jul 23/API-16)	Fix a bug on screen orientation
Jelly Bean/Android 4.1 (2012 Jul 9/API-16)	Google Now ( http://youtu.be/pPqliPzHYyc ) Voice Search Speed enhancements Camera app improvements Accessibility: gesture mode, enable braille external keyboards…	app stack navigation to define a parent activity in manifest for deep navigation MediaActionSound class to make sounds like when a camera takes a photo NFC supports large payloads over bluetooth WIFI/WIFI-Direct service discovery Large, detailed, multi-action notifications Input manager allows you to query input devices
Ice Cream Sandwich/Android 4.0.4 (2012 Mar 28/API-15)	stability improvements better camera performance smoother screen rotation
Ice Cream Sandwich/Android 4.0.3 (2011 Dec 16/API-15)	Social stream API in Contacts provider to show updates associated to your contacts Video stabilization and QVGA video resolution API access Accessibility API refinements for screen readers Calendar provider updates
Ice Cream Sandwich/Android 4.0.2 (2011 Nov 28/API-14)	Minor fixes
Ice Cream Sandwich/Android 4.0.1 (2011 Oct 19/API-14)	Facial recognition (Face Unlock) UI use Hardware acceleration Better voice recognition (dictating/Voice typing) Web browser, allows up to 16 tabs Updated launcher (customizable) Android Beam app to exchange data through NFC
Ice Cream Sandwich/Android 4.0 (2011 Oct 18/API-14)	New lock screen actions Improved text input and spell-checking Control over network data Email app supports EAS v14 WI-FI direct BlueTooth Health Device Profile	Low-level streaming multimedia (Khronos OpenMAX AL Grid Layout Spell checking service Address Space Layout Randomization VPN client API Remote Device camera enable/disable ZSL exposure, continuous focus, and image zoom Flags to help control system ui elements like system bar from apps
Honeycomb/Android 3.2.6 (2012 Feb 15/API-13)	Minor fixes
Honeycomb/Android 3.2.4 (2011 Dec 15/API-13)	Added “Pay as you go” for tablets
Honeycomb/Android 3.2.2 (2011 Sep 30/API-13)	Minor fixes
Honeycomb/Android 3.2.2 (2011 Sep 20/API-13)	Android Market updates including easier automatic updates Google Books updates Wi-Fi improvements Chinese handwriting prediction improved
Honeycomb/Android 3.2 (2011 Jul 15/API-13)	Optimizations for a wider range of tablets Compatibility display mode (zoom for fixed-sized apps) Media sync from SD card	Extended API for managing screens support New resource qualifiers for screens support New manifest attributes for screen-size compatibility Screen compatibility mode which allows for phone apps to appear as if they were still on a phone
Honeycomb/Android 3.1 (2011 May 10/API-12)	UI improvements Open Accessory API USB host API Mice, joysticks, gamepads… support Resizable Home screen widgets MTP notifications RTP API for audio
Honeycomb/Android 3.0 (2011 Feb 22/API-11)	Multi core support Better tablet support Updated 3D UI customizable homescreens recent applications viewing redone keyboard layout Media/Picture transport protocol Google Talk video chat Google eBooks “Private browsing” System-wide Clipboard HTTP Live streaming	contextual action bar Fragments first introduced(support library now supports it as well) Hardware-accelerated 2D graphics Renderscript 3D graphics engine Pluggable DRM framework device administration High performance Animation Framework RTP streaming API Forced rendering of layers High performance WIFI lock Vew network traffic stats ADTS AAC and FLAC audio LRU cache
Gingerbread/Android 2.3.7 (2011 Sep 21/API-10)	Google Wallet support for the Nexus S 4G
Gingerbread/Android 2.3.6 (2011 Sep 2/API-10)	Voice search issue fixed
Gingerbread/Android 2.3.5 (2011 Jul 25/API-10)	Improved network performance for the Nexus S 4G Fixed Bluetooth issues on the Samsung Galaxy S Gmail app. improvements
Gingerbread/Android 2.3.4 (2011 May 10/API-10)	Voice or video chat using Google Talk	Open Accessory API
Gingerbread/Android 2.3.3 (2011 Feb 9/API-10)		NFC API improvements (peer to peer communication…) added unsecure bluetooth sockets
Gingerbread/Android 2.3 (2010 Dec 6/API-9)	Updated UI Improved keyboard ease of use Improved copy/paste Improved power management Social networking features Near Field Communication support Native VoIP/SIP support Video call support	performance – concurrent garbage collection, faster event distribution, updated video drivers NDK – Native Asset Manager, Native Activities + event handling, khronos api audio effects api VP8, WebM, AAC, AMR wideband Multiple camera sensor support strictmode debugging media framework replaces OpenCore
Froyo/Android 2.3 (2010 May 20/API-8)	Speed improvements JIT implementation USB Tethering Applications installation to the expandable memory Upload file support in the browser Animated GIFs
Eclair/Android 2.3 (2010 Jan 12/API-7)	Updated UI