Android is the name of the mobile operating system owned by Google. It most commonly comes installed on a variety of smartphones and tablets from a host of manufacturers offering users access to Google’s own services like Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and more.
Android devices are highly customisable and can be altered to suit your tastes and needs; with wallpapers amd themes which can completely change the look of your device. You can download applications to do all sorts of things like check your Facebook and Twitter feeds and manage your bank account. These applications (effectively computer programs) are know as apps and are generally downloaded from the Google Play store.
In order to do this you need to have an “account” with Google. This does not involve money, simply setting up a gmail email address.
Once you have this account, many aspects of your android device, such as contacts is synchronised to that account and a copy of the information is held on the Google servers (commonly called the “cloud”).
Android has been around for 9 years and gets updated regularly (every 6 to 9 months). However, the version your device uses depends on the device manufacturers licencing arrangement with Google. Each version that comes out has extra features and may make things work or look slightly differently. As a consequence, any instructions you read about may not be quite the same on your device. By looking at the veersion history below you can check how old your system is.
| Code name | Version number | Initial release date | API level | Support status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha | 1.0 | September 23, 2008 | 1 | Unsupported |
| Beta | 1.1 | February 9, 2009 | 2 | Unsupported |
| Cupcake | 1.5 | April 27, 2009 | 3 | Unsupported |
| Donut | 1.6 | September 15, 2009 | 4 | Unsupported |
| Eclair | 2.0 – 2.1 | October 26, 2009 | 5 – 7 | Unsupported |
| Froyo | 2.2 – 2.2.3 | May 20, 2010 | 8 | Unsupported |
| Gingerbread | 2.3 – 2.3.7 | December 6, 2010 | 9 – 10 | Unsupported |
| Honeycomb | 3.0 – 3.2.6 | February 22, 2011 | 11 – 13 | Unsupported |
| Ice Cream Sandwich | 4.0 – 4.0.4 | October 18, 2011 | 14 – 15 | Unsupported |
| Jelly Bean | 4.1 – 4.3.1 | July 9, 2012 | 16 – 18 | Unsupported |
| KitKat | 4.4 – 4.4.4 | October 31, 2013 | 19 | Unsupported |
| Lollipop | 5.0 – 5.1.1 | November 12, 2014 | 21 – 22 | Unsupported |
| Marshmallow | 6.0 – 6.0.1 | October 5, 2015 | 23 | Supported |
| Nougat | 7.0 – 7.1.1 | August 22, 2016 | 24 – 25 | Supported |
How to find out your version of Android
Every device will have this information, but getting to it may vary according to the version of Android you have and whether the device manuafacturer has made any modifications. However, if you go to settings and scroll down, you should see an option called About. Tapping this should give you the Android version.
Can you upgrade your version of Android
In the section where you found out the version of Android you are using there is often an option to perform a system update. Tap it and see whether you can update. Remember that updating can require a large download of data and take some time.
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