What Is Android ?

Android is a mobile operating system (Linux-based) designed for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers developed by Android, Inc. Android is open source and Google releases the code under the Apache License and allows the software to be freely modified and distributed by device manufacturers  or  enthusiast developers.  Android has a large community of developers building applications and the apps written primarily in Java programming language. There were approximately 700,000 apps available for Android on Google Play.

This operating system has customizable, lightweight for high tech devices without developing one from scratch and it designed for phones and tablets. Android has a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open source code as a foundation for community-driven projects, which add new features for advanced users.

User Interface

Android's user interface is using touch inputs that loosely correspond, like swiping, tapping and pinching to manipulate on screen objects. The user input is designed to be immediate and provides a fluid touch interface, often using the vibration capabilities of the device to provide haptic feedback to the user. Internal hardware includes accelerometers  and proximity sensors both used by some applications to respond to additional user actions, like adjusting the screen from portrait to landscape depending on how the device is oriented, adjusting the screen brightness etc.

Android Play store

Android has market applications, which can be acquired by users either through an app store such as Google Play. There are about 800,000 apps and 20 billion totals installs. The Play Store or google plays application allows users to browse, download and update apps published by Google and third-party developers on devices that comply with Google's compatibility requirements. The app sorted the list of available applications to those that are compatible with the user's device and developers may restrict their applications to particular carriers or countries for business reasons.