Android updates guide: All the features of every version

For fans of Google’s Android OS, regular updates are sweeter
treats than the sugary codenames that grace the various versions. A delayed
update can feel like slow torture, and a new version is a geeky joy to
receive.

This is the place to find all the details on every version of
Android, past and present. Bookmark
this page as reference for when you want to know what features you can expect from the
latest version, or look back at the goodies that came before. Also, if you haven’t the foggiest what Android is, check out our video guide to the software at the bottom of the page.

Versions are in reverse order, with the most recent at the top.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Jelly Bean, announced in June 2012, may not be a big jump in version number, but adds a host of important updates to Android. Here are the features you can expect to see in Android 4.1.

What you get:

• Google Now, an assistant tool that displays relevant information based on your search history and location data.
• A higher frame rate makes swooping through menus and homescreens feel buttery smooth.
• View photos you’ve taken quickly by swiping from the camera to filmstrip view.
• Widgets and apps politely move out of the way when you add new ones.
• Notifications now include more information, such as photos or subject lines in emails.
• Search results can now display answers to questions, rather than simply a list of Google web links.
• A new gestures mode to improve accessibility for blind users, letting you navigate the UI using touch and swipe gestures, in combination with speech output.

The first device to run Jelly Bean will be the quad-core, astonishingly cheap Google Nexus 7 tablet. If you want more information on this version of Android, check out our in-depth guide to Jelly Bean.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Ice
Cream Sandwich (ICS) was announced at the Google I/O conference in
May 2011. We had to wait until the Samsung Galaxy Nexus landed in our laps in December before we could see it first-hand. ICS was designed to merge Gingerbread
— Android for phones — together with Honeycomb, which was
designed for tablets.

We’ve compiled our top 10 reasons why we think ICS is better than Gingerbread.

What you get:

• A speedier, smoother browser.
• A data traffic monitor to help you avoid busting your network data limit.
• More storage space for apps.
• A new user-friendly action bar replacing the Menu button.
• Face recognition for unlocking your phone.
• The ability to decline calls with pre-penned text messages.
• And most fun of all, live video effects for making your mates look grotesquely disfigured.

One drawback is the fact that ICS lacks support for Adobe Flash, but it’s no longer such an issue since the company has already confirmed that it’s dropping support for it.

Android 3.0 and 3.1 Honeycomb

Honeycomb
expanded Android to fit the big screens of tablet computers. This
version of Android is a separate branch that’s only for tablets, and
will never come to phones.

Android 3.1 was announced in May 2011, and adds a peck of user
interface refinements to Honeycomb. We haven’t tested this version yet,
but Google
writes that the tweaks will make “UI elements easier to see,
understand and use”. Widgets will also gain the ability to be dragged
bigger or smaller, to suit your screen. Android 3.1 also adds support
for plugging USB flash drives into your tablet to transfer files
without connecting to a computer, as well as USB keyboards,
mice and joysticks.

What you get:

• A blue wireframe design gives Honeycomb a Tron-inspired
  look.
• Home screens appear to rotate on a 3D carousel as you swipe
  through them.
• Widgets are bigger and bolder to suit the tablet-size
  screen.
• The hardware buttons — home and back — have been moved on to
  the screen as virtual buttons that move with you as you rotate your
  tablet. Meanwhile, the app menu is repositioned to the upper
  right-hand corner. There’s also a new button that fires up a list of
  currently running apps, visible as thumbnail images.
• Key apps, such as Gmail and YouTube, are heavily redesigned
  to take advantage of the space available.
• The Web browser introduces tabbed browsing, a feature
  familiar from desktop browsers such as Chrome. There’s also an incognito
  mode to browse on the quiet.
• A larger, multi-touch keyboard lets you hold down multiple
  keys to temporarily switch between letters and numbers, for example.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Gingerbread
was baked in December 2010, but its main features
didn’t make much of a splash. NFC, for contactless payment, and SIP,
for Internet calling, both lay the foundations for future developments,
and aren’t much fun at the moment.

Android
2.3.3 was a long time coming, but when it did arrive on phones
in April 2011, it only added one new feature — the ability for
single-core phones to run apps designed for dual-core processors.
Android 2.3.4 added yet more bug fixes.

What you get:

• User interface elements, such as the notification bar, go
  from grey to black, in a bid to avoid screen burn-in and increase
  battery life.
• The on-screen keyboard gains number shortcuts across the
  top, and a cursor helps to select and copy text.
• NFC theoretically lets you wave your phone in front of an
  NFC-enabled emitter to make things happen, whether it’s buy a train
  ticket or check out a website. But, until more NFC systems are in place
  in the UK, this perk of Gingerbread won’t affect us much. 
• Apps are juggled more adeptly in the background, saving
  battery and processing power.
• Support for a front-facing camera for video calling and your emo self-portrait.
• A download manager so you can keep your eye on everything
  you’ve downloaded.

Android 2.2 Froyo

Arriving in May 2010, Froyo
shook up the little green robot
again. It introduced Flash, which has become one of the defining
differences between Android and its main competitor, the
iPhone. 

What you get:

• Flash Player 10.1 came to Android, which filled in the
  holes in the Web. Videos, photo slideshows and streaming audio, not to
  mention plain old site navigation, suddenly became visible on your
  mobile.
• Your settings joined your contacts and email in backing up
  to Google’s servers, so theoretically they should be automatically
  restored if you switch to a new Android phone.
• Yet more features for connecting to your Microsoft Exchange
  account, including access to your Outlook address book and the ability
  for your IT department to remotely wipe your phone.
• If your phone has a flash, it can be used to light up your
  videos, too.
• The portable Wi-Fi hotspot lets you share your phone’s 3G
  Internet connection with your other gadgets, over Wi-Fi.
• Speedier Web surfing thanks to changes to the browser.
• Better Bluetooth compatibility with docks and in-car
  speakers, and the addition of voice dialling over Bluetooth.

Android 2.0 and 2.1 Eclair

We didn’t have to wait long before Android 2.0 arrived, a mere
month after Donut, in November 2009. Eclair reached out to the suits
with support for Microsoft Exchange server, which most businesses use
for email.

Android 2.1 Eclair arrived in January 2010. It fixed some bugs
and let app developers play with more features, but it didn’t add any
features for users. 

What
you get:

• Exchange support, so you can finally get your Outlook
  email. There’s also a unified email inbox. However, it’s still kept
  with POP and IMAP email in a separate app to Gmail.
• Support for multiple Google accounts lets you stock up on
  all your Gmail.
• Camera settings including support for a flash, digital
  zoom, white balance and colour effects.
• Searching within text messages and MMS messages.
• Multi-touch support in the on-screen keyboard helps it
  figure out what you’re trying to say if you accidentally type two
  letters at once. The dictionary incorporates your contacts so you get
  people’s names right, too.
• The Web brower gets a refresh with a new address bar and
  thumbnails for a sneak peek at your bookmarks.

Android 1.6 Donut

In October 2009, we bit into Donut. It offered fewer major
improvements, now that most of the key features were in place. But it
brought Android to a new crowd, thanks to the addition of support for
CDMA — the technology used by some American mobile networks.

What
you get:

• The universal search function helped us pinpoint our apps
  and contacts on the phone, or jump to searching the Web.
• Support for more screen resolutions opened the door to
  Android phones of different sizes.
• Google
  Maps Navigation added free turn-by-turn sat-nav.

Android 1.5 Cupcake

The sugary code-names started with Cupcake, the first major
update to Android, which dropped in May 2009. Cupcake was packed with
new features, but perhaps the most significant was the virtual
keyboard, which paved the way for buttonless blowers such as the HTC
Magic.

What you get:

• Shortcuts and widgets on the home screen meant our
  mobiles could now be obsessively tweaked and personalised.
• An on-screen keyboard meant tapping virtually
  could replace typing on the real thing, making phones lighter and
  leaner.
• Video recording was added to the camera, and the ability to
  upload videos straight to YouTube helped fulfil our dreams of stardom.
• Stereo Bluetooth lets you listen to music without wires.
• The Web browser gets a speed boost and the copy and paste
  function.

Android 1.0 and 1.1

Android was born in 2008 on the gawky, gangly but ultimately
powerful and fun T-Mobile
G1. Made by HTC but flogged by T-Mo, this early version of
Anroid was full of potential, but we deemed it best suited to early
adopters and gadget hounds.

Although the G1 couldn’t beat the nascent Apple
iPhone in the style stakes, it offered most of the major
Android
features that we’ve come to know and love.

What you get:

• The Android Market served up apps without the stringent
  entry rules of the Apple App Store, leading to a vibrant selection of
  apps, ranging from the
  sublime to the ridiculous.
• The Android browser made surfing the Web on your phone a
  pleasure rather than a pain, thanks to the ability to render pages
  quickly and accurately.
• Google Maps used the phone’s GPS and Wi-Fi to pinpoint your
  location on an infinite map, so you need never be lost again.
• Syncing with our contacts, email and calendar online
  initially made us wary of sharing all our data with Google, but our
  privacy concerns
  were soon vanquished by the sheer convenience of accessing everything,
  from anywhere.

What is Android?

Hit play to see Flora explain just what the devil Android is all about.

Additional reporting by Flora Graham.