People seem to confuse what is Android, is it an operating system or a programming language. That’s why I am writing this article about what Android is? So let’s get straight to the point.
Android is an operating system based on a modified Linux kernel. It is primarily designed for touch-based devices like Smartphones and Tablets. It is a free and open-source OS, its source code is known as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Although many people don’t consider Android as an open-source operating system.
Now for the development part, most Android apps are developed in Java. Java is the official language for Android development. Android APIs are meant to be called primarily from Java.
Android OS is mainly developed in Java, but the core of Android is Linux above which there is a set of C and C++ Libraries. These libraries are used through APIs in the framework of apps. Above the layer of libraries, there is the layer of Application Framework and then Applications both are written in Java language.
Difference in Android and IOS?
In terms of basic functions, both Android and IOS are quite similar. As both are mainly for touch-based devices. Both support various touch-based actions like swiping, pinch, tapping, etc. Both have basic apps like Calling, Messaging, Web Browsing, Video Chat, etc.
The main difference is interms of development of both the operating systems.
Android is an open-source OS while iOS is a closed source operating system. Android uses Linux kernel while iPhone uses XNU kernel of Darwin.
Apps in Android are developed in Java. While for the development of iOS apps a new language programming language Swift is developed.
There are also some other differences like Android is very easy to customize, while iOS supports very few customizations. Android performance decline in performance with time, while iOS offers quite consistent performance
I hope you now know that Android is an operating system based on Linux kernel. If you have any other question feel free to ask in comments.