What phones use google android

WHAT’S NEW

Meet the 13 newest Android features.

We’re making your phone more helpful this season with thirteen new features coming to Android. Like tools that help you get things done more easily. Settings that add time back into your day. And brand-new ways to express yourself. Find out what’s available now on your Android phone.

HELPFUL FEATURES

Built to help you do more. Or less.

Google TV remote

Now you can find something great to watch even when the couch has eaten your remote. Use your Android’s quick settings or the Google TV app on your Android phone to control your tv from your mobile device. You can even use your phone’s keyboard to quickly type complicated passwords, movie names or search terms.

Android Auto media and games

Get on your way faster and stay entertained on your journey with music, games and more from Google Assistant on Android Auto. Safely press play when on the road to get personalized music, news, and podcast recommendations. When you get to where you’re going, GameSnacks lets you play fun and challenging games on your car’s touchscreen.

Accessibility

Tools that make the world more accessible.

Camera Switches

Camera Switches is a new Android accessibility feature in Switch Access that can help those with speech and motor impairments to navigate their phone using eye movements and facial gestures. It turns the phone’s front-facing camera into a switch, so you can choose one movement to scan, and another to select. Pick a combination of gestures that works for you, and customize them to your range of movement. By choosing just two simple gestures, all of Android is now more accessible to more people. Watch the tutorial to get started. ​​Camera Switches will be made widely available on September 30th.

Project Activate

Built for and with people who don’t speak or have neurological conditions, Project Activate from Google Research makes it easy to communicate with Android via facial gestures. Whether you’re texting a loved one, getting a caregiver’s attention, using a voice-activated device or laughing along with friends, the app enables you to speak just by smiling or looking up.

Lookout updates

Lookout by Google makes it easier for people with low vision or blindness to accomplish frequent tasks like sorting mail, putting away groceries and more. This latest update introduces two popularly requested features: handwriting recognition and currency recognition for dollars, euros and rupees.

DIGITAL WELLBEING

Add some balance to your day.

Heads up

This new feature within Android’s Digital Wellbeing settings reminds you to stay alert when you’re looking at your phone’s screen while walking.

Android Assistant reminder hub

At home or on the go, keeping track of your to-do list is even easier—with recurring reminders that notify you at the perfect moment. Just say «Hey Google, remind me to take out the trash every Sunday night.” You can manage your reminders in the hub by asking Google “Show me my reminders.”

Waze on Android Auto

Waze on Android Auto has been redesigned to accommodate maps and instructions first, so you can drive distraction-free. You’ll also get lane guidance, touchpad support and night mode for a smoother and safer driving experience.

FUN & PRODUCTIVITY

More ways to create, share and enjoy.

New emojis

As we continue to provide users with more ways to express themselves, we want to make it easier to find the emoji mashups you love—as well as all-new ones that you might not yet know about. Emoji Kitchen offers more choices than ever before, with thousands of mashups that can express even the most nuanced emotions.

Animated backgrounds in Meet

Animated video background replacements in Meet can help you maintain privacy for what’s behind you while also making your video calls more fun.

GBoard updates

Screenshot SuggestionsNo more digging through your camera roll for a screenshot. Now when you open a messaging app, you can find and select your most recent screenshot right from Gboard.

Smart ClipboardCutting and pasting information just got easier. When you copy text that includes a phone number, email address or URL, you’ll see those key snippets of text suggested in the clipboard. You can drop those snippets into Messages, Maps and more to share contact information quickly or get started on your road trip faster.

Smart ComposeSmart Compose suggests common phrases as you type to help you cut back on repetition and potential typos. Sending and replying to messages is a breeze when you can swipe to autocomplete an entire sentence.

Improved visibility settings in Nearby Share

Take full control of who can discover your device and send files. Choose between everyone, your contacts or no one. You can easily change your preference through your phone’s Quick Settings space, anytime.

Locked Folder

Locked Folder is a passcode-protected space where you can save sensitive photos—so they won’t show up as you scroll through Google Photos or any other apps on your device.

PREVIOUS RELEASES

Dive in deeper.

Old updates, past features, and previous releases. Tools to help you get more out of every moment. We’re always pushing Android forward. Learn what else is available on your device.

FIND A DEVICE

Phones ready for action.

Experience new features from Android on devices made for the latest and greatest.

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Google made its best acquisition nearly 16 years ago: Can you guess what it was?

Back in 2005, everyone thought of Google as just another ad-supported search company. However, nearly 16 years ago, on July 11, 2005, the company made what we think was its best acquisition to date. It purchased a little startup company called Android. At the time, there was no “Google buys Android” news headline to reveal the move; that would come a little later.

Of course, we all know the deal was a great success — this website wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t. Using the skills of its new Android team members, Google spent the next three years developing an operating system for mobile devices. This culminated in the launch of the first public version of Android in 2008, released on the T-Mobile G1/HTC Dream.

Today, Android is the most popular mobile OS in the world by a large margin. The latest estimates from the research firm Statista claim that Android was used in 71.93 percent of all new smartphones as of January 2021. Android also beat more established rivals like Microsoft’s Windows Phone (and Windows Mobile), Nokia’s Symbian, and most notably BlackBerry.

In May 2021, Google revealed there were over 3 billion monthly active Android devices. Besides smartphones, Android is used in smartwatches, tablets, smart TVs, and more. Perhaps more importantly, the launch of Android helped Google become one of the biggest and most influential companies in the world.

It wasn’t smooth sailing the whole time for Android, though.

Google buys Android: A history

Google bought Android from a standalone company called Android Inc. It was founded a couple of years before Google bought it, in the first half of 2003. The Palo Alto company’s most well-known co-founder was Andy Rubin, who had previously worked for companies like MSN and Apple. It was at Apple where Rubin reportedly got the “Android” nickname when his co-workers noticed his own love of robots.

In 1999, Rubin helped form the company Danger, which launched one of the first proto-smartphones, the Danger Hiptop (re-branded as the Sidekick when T-Mobile sold it in 2002). Rubin later departed Danger in 2003 to help form Android, along with the other co-founders Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White.

The original idea for the company was to create an operating system for digital cameras (read more about that below) and that’s how Android OS was initially pitched to early investors. That soon changed as by then the market for standalone digital cameras was shrinking, as consumers ditched them for mobile phones. Rubin and the team decided to switch their focus and make an open-source OS for phones.

However, for a while, it looked like Android as a company was close to shutting down entirely. At the lowest point, Rubin had to ask a friend, investor Steve Perlman, for some extra money. Perlman actually went to a bank and took out $10,000 cash, giving it directly to Rubin. The day after that cash transaction, Rubin wired an unknown amount of extra money to Android to keep it going.

As it turned out, that’s all Android Inc. needed to survive before its next deal. Google asked to meet the co-founders of Android in January 2005 to see if they could help the company.

In a second meeting later that year, the Android co-founders showed off a prototype of their mobile OS to Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It was apparently good enough because Google quickly offered to acquire Android. How much did Google buy Android for? The official documents state it was a mere $50 million.

As for why Google decided to buy Android, it’s likely that Page and Brin believed that a mobile OS would help greatly expand its core search and ad businesses well beyond its PC platform at that time.

The Android team officially moved to Google’s campus in Mountain View, California on July 11, 2005. That day is considered the official date for the acquisition of Android by Google. However, the news about Google purchasing Android didn’t become public until a few weeks later, in August 2005.

Why this was its best acquisition

The fact that Google bought Android for just $50 million is remarkable compared to its acquisitions in the 16 years that followed. In fact, the company spent just $130 million to buy companies in all of 2005. By comparison, only a little over a year later, Google spent a whopping $1.65 billion acquiring YouTube. There was much debate about whether YouTube was worth the money at the time, but it’s certainly paid off by now, though Android’s actually been even more successful.

Some of Google’s other acquisitions have not been as successful, however. The massive $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola in 2011 is often cited as one of Google’s biggest missteps, with the search giant selling the company to Lenovo for just $2.9 billion a little over three years later. You also only need to look at some of the plots in the Google Graveyard to see multiple examples of purchases that went sour.

Some of Google’s other purchases could still be considered works in progress. Nest Labs, which Google bought for $3.2 billion in 2014, was slow to take off, but with the move to bring Google and Nest devices under a single brand, there are clearly big plans ahead. There’s also the company’s recent purchase of Fitbit for a cool $2.1 billion. Who knows what will come of that — a Pixel Watch maybe?

Nevertheless, it’s highly unlikely Google will ever get a better return on its investment than it had with Android. While the company will no doubt continue buying and investing in other companies, there’s really no getting around how big of a win that $50 million startup became.

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Can I buy a phone that doesn’t use anything from Google or Apple?

Steve does not like firms slurping up his data, so wants a device that respects his privacy

If you want to rid your life of Google and Apple, Nokia’s basic phones are one of the few options available. Photograph: Nokia

If you want to rid your life of Google and Apple, Nokia’s basic phones are one of the few options available. Photograph: Nokia

Last modified on Thu 4 Jul 2019 08.02 BST

I have concerns about the likes of Google and Apple slurping up as much info as they can about me from my phone. I’ve tried looking online for alternatives and found mentions of things like /e/, Lineage, Sailfish OS etc, but they assume a level of tech knowledge far above what I have as a layman. So, are there any phones that are 100% free from Google and Apple software and hardware? How easy are such phones to obtain? Steve

Very easy. You can pick up a Nokia 105 (2017 edition) for about £15 or a dual-sim Nokia 106 (2018 edition) for about £16. These are only 2G phones but they have built-in FM radios, they can send texts, they are great for making phone calls and they are not based on Google or Apple technologies. A 3G or 4G phone would cost a bit more …

Of course, you may also want to do smartphone-type things such as email and web browsing. In that case, buy a GPD Pocket 2, GPD MicroPC, One Mix Yoga, One Mix 1S, One Mix 2S or similar just-about-pocketable computer running Microsoft Windows 10 on a 7in screen. (GeekBuying stocks several models and is taking reservations on the One Mix 1S.) Mini-laptops may look expensive but they are cheaper than high-end smartphones.

This answers your question but it is obviously not the solution you are looking for …

The problem is that most people – including me – want to use Googly things on their phones. Gmail is the dominant email service, YouTube is the dominant short video provider, Google Search and Google Maps are very useful and Google Chrome is the most widely used web browser. There may be viable and sometimes preferable alternatives but you have to make an effort to use them. Most people don’t want to make the effort.

Even the Nokia 8110 4G has Google’s Assistant and Maps app installed. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Indeed, it looks as though the next generation of candy-bar phones will also include Google. Nokia’s latest 4G feature-phone, the Nokia 8110 “banana phone”, runs the KaiOS operating system, in which Google has invested $22 million. The Alcatel Go Flip 2, JioPhone and Orange Sanza are alternative KaiOS phones available in North America, India and Africa respectively. (Kai is named from the Chinese word for open, not the undead protagonist in the Lexx science fiction series.)

KaiOS includes WhatsApp – its main selling point – plus a web browser, Facebook, YouTube, Google Maps and Google Assistant. It’s claimed to be the second most popular operating system in India and could manage that in Africa. Some KaiOS phones cost less than $20.

KaiOS started as a fork of B2G (Boot to Gecko), which was an open source continuation of Firefox OS, which Mozilla stopped developing at the end of 2015. Gonk, the operating system underneath Gecko (which is Firefox’s web-rendering engine) is a small Linux kernel derived from Google’s AOSP, the Android Open Source Project.

In other words, the OS most likely to become a global alternative to Apple’s iOS and Google Android isn’t – and isn’t likely to be – 100% free from Google software. Even if it is not KaiOS, any future OS might use parts of AOSP because it is easier than developing everything from scratch. It could also pre-package access to some Google properties, even if they are just web apps, because most people want to use them.

A string of failures …

Windows Phone evolved from early Pocket PCs but never really took off, despite Microsoft’s best efforts. Photograph: Kimihiro Hoshino/AFP/Getty Images

The fact that we have, essentially, a duopoly in the smartphone business is not for want of trying. Microsoft entered the market with a version of Windows running on ARM-based smartphones and it even made Windows available free on small-screen devices. The people who owned Windows phones seemed to love them and in 24 countries it overtook Apple’s iPhone in market share. However, the lack of apps was a major stumbling block and Microsoft abandoned its challenge, having lost billions of dollars in the attempt.

You can still buy Windows phones but most date from 2015-16 and will soon be out of support. I didn’t recommend buying them when they came out so I really wouldn’t recommend one now.

Canonical also had a go at the smartphone market with its Linux-based Ubuntu Touch. It failed. In this case, the development was taken over by the UBports Community, which developed a port for the OnePlus One smartphone in 2015. There are now a few others but I don’t expect Ubuntu Touch phones to appear in your local high street.

South Korea’s two smartphone manufacturers, Samsung and LG, would also love to have an independent operating system but success is unlikely. Samsung tried with Tizen, which was supported by the Linux Foundation. The Samsung Z series was launched in India and didn’t do well enough but Tizen is used in Samsung Gear smartwatches. LG could have a go with Palm’s Linux-based webOS, which it acquired from HP in 2013. WebOS first appeared on Palm Pre smartphones in 2009 but LG has mainly used it in smart TV sets.

Sailfish started with another failed Linux project, Nokia and Intel’s MeeGo. The latest version uses a graphical shell from Jolla, the Finnish company that appears to be its major backer. Sailfish can be ported to more alternative smartphones than Ubuntu Touch but I can’t see any current phones with Sailfish pre-installed. The same is true for both /e/ (formerly Eelo), which is a sort of de-Googled Android, and LineageOS, which is a reborn CyanogenMod.

You main hope is Purism’s forthcoming Librem 5, which seems to be exactly what you want. Whether it can buck the trend remains to be seen.

In general, the problem with Linux on smartphones looks much like its problem on PCs. Many and various groups enjoy developing new versions of the operating system, which are all more or less doomed from birth. None of them have the skills, the interests or the money to create viable platforms that include the hardware, apps, services, packaging, marketing, advertising, distribution and support on the sort of scale needed to sustain a real product. Without those, they are unlikely to attract much interest beyond hobbyists and enthusiasts.

Future success?

Donald Trump’s actions against Huawei have triggered a shift in thinking from China, with its firms seeking alternatives to US software and chips. Photograph: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images

Things may change thanks mainly to the current American president. Trump sent China and the rest of the world a wakeup call by trying to exclude Huawei – the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer and the leader in 5G – from using American technology. Huawei was already developing its own Android app-compatible operating system, currently known as Hongmen OS, as an alternative. The potential loss of up to $30bn in sales per year suggests there will be no shortage of money or manpower for its future development.

Indeed, China has a powerful incentive to replace all the American technology it uses with home-grown alternatives. This may take decades but in the long run, it will hurt Google, Intel, Qualcomm and numerous other US companies. The genie is out of the bottle and the Americans will never be able to put it back.

Hongmen, aka Ark OS, may not have a lot of appeal in Europe but it could do well in Asian countries that already do more trade with China than with the US.

Meanwhile, the EU’s latest antitrust case against Google should allow phone manufacturers to offer alternative browsers and search engines. It should also enable Android smartphone suppliers to sell phones with alternative versions of Android in Europe, which Google did not allow them to do before. A major player such as Samsung or Huawei could therefore test the market with a Google-free Android phone. In which case, you can vote with your wallet.

Remember the apps!

Smartphones are simple shells without the apps to run on them. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Whatever happens with Apple and Google, people buy smartphones to run apps and most apps appear to be compromising your privacy. In 2017 a study from the University of California at Berkeley found that around 70% of apps shared your data with third-party services (PDF).

A recent Washington Post story based on Disconnect.me technology found trackers were rife in the journalist’s iPhone apps. Google, of course, banned Disconnect Mobile from its Play store way back in 2014. In a blogpost, the company wrote: “Google refuses to explain their decision, other than to say that our app won’t be allowed if it interferes with any ads; even ads that contain malware and steal your identity.”

The app economy, like the web economy, is ultimately based on surveillance. That isn’t likely to change unless the EU does something about it. And so far, despite the GDPR and three antitrust cases against Google, the EU has left smartphone tracking revenues unharmed.

Have you got a question? Email it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com

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