The first androids were the technological equivalent of alternative rock.
When Android first came to the HTC Dream – known in the US as the T-Mobile G1 – the world was a very different place. The year was 2008. MySpace was still popular, Taylor Swift was just enjoying her first taste of mainstream success, and the cool kids were still shutting down their bedazzled Motorola Razr phones before slipping them into even more bedazzled skinny jeans. As for smartphones, the choice of the day was still a BlackBerry, but change was in the air. Apple launched the iPhone 3GS in June 2008, its faster data connection finally making it useful without a Wi-Fi signal.
Android knew he had to compete. The Linux-based operating system was acquired, along with its forebear, Andy Rubin, in 2005. Google paid $50 million to acquire it, in retrospect one of the best deals in business history, but it arrived at the company’s Mountain View offices in dire need of renovation. Rubin initially envisioned Android as a software platform for cameras when he began his work in 2003, and moving to a mobile operating system involved fundamental changes. Internally, Google sounded the alarm after the iPhone’s initial launch in 2007. It brought together a consortium of mobile industry giants called the Open Handset Alliance to promote its new operating system, hoping that a united front could fend off Steve Jobs’ coronation.
The T-Mobile G1 came to market not as a confident statement, but as a play of desperation, and it felt good. Its hardware was aggressive and over-engineered, the opposite of the simplistic and sleek design of Apple’s iPhone. The phone’s distinctive “chin” jutted out from under the sliding screen, forcing you to awkwardly stretch your thumb over it just to type on the physical QWERTY keyboard underneath.
But none of that mattered. The phone was a proof of concept, a sweaty, edgy gauntlet thrown at the feet of RIM, Microsoft, and Apple. Android had arrived and there would soon be a deluge of handsets running it. Today, it is the most popular operating system in the world, powering more devices than any other. And while it’s changed significantly over the years, what’s most surprising is how much of it remains more or less the same – after all, never fix what’s not broken.
Android 1.0 Cupcake was a promising mess
On a cool, crisp September morning in 2008, the T-Mobile G1 had only been out for a few days, and holding it felt like cradling the future in my palm. It was just as ugly as it looked in the photos online – a twisted piece of plastic. You’d never know that HTC sent 50 engineers to live in California and design it with Google. But what he did on screen was undeniable.
Joshua Topolsky and Chris Ziegler for Woozad
Joshua Topolsky and Chris Ziegler for Woozad
The G1 came with Android 1.0 Cupcake and was eventually upgraded to 1.6 Donut. Google ditched the dessert-themed naming scheme with Android 10 — in retrospect, a signal that fun was becoming a rare commodity in Silicon Valley — but at the time, it helped the nascent operating system exude a candy-coated charm that stood in stark contrast to Apple’s relatively grounded skeuomorphic approach in iOS.
Joshua Topolsky and Chris Ziegler for Woozad
Joshua Topolsky and Chris Ziegler for Woozad
Missing from Android 1.0 was an on-screen keyboard and copy-paste functionality, both of which arrived with Android 1.5 the following year. Multitouch support, one of the iPhone’s main innovations, was also absent. But what existed at launch was the Android Market, later renamed the Google Play Store. Google seems to have understood from the start a wisdom that Steve Jobs initially resisted and Windows Phone later discovered the hard way: that the buy-in of third-party developers can make or break a platform.
One important element of the UI that persists to this day is the notification shade, which Google pretty much set from the start. Scrolling down from the top of the screen revealed your unrecognized alerts in a neat list. Although many changes and improvements have been made over the years, this basic concept remains unchanged and even the iPhone eventually adopted it.
Joshua Topolsky and Chris Ziegler for Woozad
Today’s Android 17 is mature, but less fun
Sam Rutherford for Woozad
Comparing Android 1.0 to the latest versions of Android 17 as of this writing, there is a striking similarity between the two, as well as a world of differences. For one thing, there are now many more versions of Android. By the end of 2010, companies like LG, Sony, and Samsung were offering their own Android phones, each with a different visual style and feature set. Today, two Android phones like the Google Pixel 11 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra run markedly different software, and that’s not even counting Motorola, Xiaomi, or a dozen others.
Max Miller for Woozad
With massive improvements to mobile processors since the early days, many flagship Android phones now feature huge, high refresh rate OLED displays compared to the T-Mobile G1’s small 3.2-inch LCD panel. In 2012, Google launched Project Butter, an initiative to help Android run smoother after developing a reputation for shaky and slow UX. This has allowed Android to become much more expressive over the years.
The Android ecosystem has also come into its own, with features like end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging on Google Messages, easy file sharing between devices with Quick Share, and smartwatch integration through WearOS.
Sam Rutherford for Woozad
On the other hand, Google’s more restrictive plans for the future of Android software have brought the entire app ecosystem more firmly under its control. Hugely influential manufacturers, including Samsung, have locked down bootloaders and removed hardware options like headphone jacks, infrared emitters, and SD card slots. Today, Android is a mature operating system and more useful for most users, but less interesting for enthusiasts.
Max Miller for Woozad
