Google has discontinued the use of dessert names for Android releases

Google Inc. has announced regarding the cessation of the practice of assigning dessert names in alphabetical order to Android platform releases, and the transition to ordinary numeric numbering. The previously used scheme was borrowed from the practice of naming internal branches used by Google engineers, but it caused much confusion among users and third-party developers. Thus, the release currently in development Android Q is now officially called Android 10, and the next release will initially be promoted as Android 10.1 or Android 11.

The announcement also notes the achievement of another milestone in popularity — Android is now used on more than 2.5 billion active devices. At the same time, an updated project logo has been presented, featuring only the robot's head instead of the full image, and the text is displayed in a different font and black color instead of green.

Among other changes related to the Android project, it is worth mentioning release an integrated development environment Android Studio 3.5, built on the source code of the product IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition. The Android Studio project is developed under an open development model and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. Binary builds are prepared for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Support is provided for all current versions of Android and Google Play services. A key innovation of the new version is the implementation of the Marble project, shifting the development focus from increasing functionality towards improving workflow quality, enhancing stability, and refining existing capabilities.

In preparing the new release, over 600 bugs, 50 memory leaks, and 20 issues leading to freezes have been fixed, as well as efforts to increase build speed and improve editor responsiveness when entering XML markup and Kotlin code. The organization of the application launch process on the device has been completely redesigned — instead of the "Instant Run" mode, the "Apply Changes" function has been introduced, which, rather than modifying the APK package, uses a separate runtime to override classes on the fly, making the process of launching the application significantly more comfortable while making code changes.

Source: opennet.ru