Android turns 10: What's left of the original OS?

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The first commercial version of Android was released on September 24, 2008, exactly ten years ago today. The Android operating system debuted with the HTC Dream, the G1, a legendary phone with a touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard. While Android 1.0 lacked many of the features we now rely on in our daily lives, the OS was still very revolutionary when it first appeared on the G1. But it still had a lot more features than you might think. As part of Android's 10th anniversary event today, we've compiled a few of the original features that still exist on what is now the world's largest and most popular mobile operating system. Although the names may have changed, the following core features of Android have officially been used for ten years!

Application Market

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What would an Android phone be without an app store? Sure, Android 1.0 came with a ton of basic apps pre-installed, but there were still a lot of apps that weren’t enough. If you wanted to play video files on an Android phone, you needed to download a third-party app because the feature wasn’t baked into Android yet! The Android App Market was where you’d go for all your Android app needs on the HTC Dream. But when the first Android App Market launched, it only had about 13 apps available (all of which were free). Only 13 apps! But once Google opened up the Android App Market to independent developers, that number increased exponentially. By the end of 2008, there were about 200 apps on the Android App Market. In 2012, Google merged the Android App Market with two other products: Google Music and Google eBookstore. The merged name was changed to Google Play, marking the end of the Android App Market. But today, the core functionality of the Google Play Store is still based on the framework of the Android App Market.

Synchronization function

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Now when you get a new phone, you need to change the SIM card and then synchronize the contacts of the old phone on various domestic apps. This method existed ten years ago, that is, Goole synchronization. In Android 1.0, synchronization applications have been running, such as Google Contacts, Gmail, and Google Calendar. For example, if you add an event to the Google Calendar on your smartphone, the event will eventually be synchronized with your web-based Google Calendar, and you can keep it in sync no matter what system you use. This achieves the connection between mobile phones and computers. Synchronization seems to be a small function, but it is the basis of modern smartphone applications.

Drawers and widgets

The most critical difference between Android and its competitor iOS, both then and now, is the way users can organize their desktops. You can choose your favorite and frequently used applications to put on the desktop. Although this feature has been removed by most domestic manufacturers, it does not affect this. It is a pioneering feature that allows users to choose. The core content of Android also has the widget function, which allows you to quickly access the core functions of the application without launching the entire program. All of these Android features are still retained today, and have hardly changed in the past decade. Android determined that these features were extraordinary on the first day.

notify

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Although it may sound silly to include the Notification Center in this, as if every mobile operating system has some type of notification system, let me explain. Smartphones may all have notification systems, but only the Android Notification Center has two functions, one is to be able to apply notifications and the other is to be able to change the system status: The Notification Center is a drop-down status bar, both of which appeared in Android 1.0. We now take these two things together for granted, but until now iOS has separated app notifications and system status changes into two parts. But if Android 1.0 didn't have such a brilliant design back in the day, who knows what kind of notification methods would be on Android today.

Looking ahead

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Although there are many rumors that Google is going to develop a new operating system to replace Android, maybe every operating system has its lifespan, but Android has been running for ten years now. Maybe everyone will have a lot of complaints. But judging from the market share in the past ten years, Android is still very successful. What features do you think Android will retain in the next 10 years? What features do you hope Android will have? Please discuss in the comments.