Android 2013

It's the end of the year - YouTube and Google Zeitgeist have posted their reviews. Let's have a look on what happened in the Android world in 2013.


January
2012 is over and the Nexus 4 is the current flagship phone made by Google and LG.

February
Google+ Sign-In is integrated into the Google Play Services and Google starts accepting applications for the Google Glass Explorer program.

March
The new Android developer console is out of preview. While Google Play celebrates it first birthday, the market share of Android hits 64%.

April
The tablet guidelines are updated and the Android developer console starts to show tablet optimization tips. Google pushes a Google Play app update that features a redesigned UI. Samsung releases it new flaship phone - the Samsung Galaxy S4.

May
The Google I/O takes place for three days from May 15th to 17th. This time there won't be a new Android release. Instead Google releases new game services and a new location API. At the Google I/O a new IDE for Android development is introduced: Android Studio. Since then every couple of weeks a new Android Studio update is pushed to the developer community.



July
A new flavor of Android Jelly Bean is released: Android 4.3. Open GL ES 3.0 and support for low-power Bluetooth Smart devices are some of the new features. Furthermore a new version of the Nexus 7 is released. Together with the new tablet Google releases the Chromecast dongle and the Google Cast SDK preview.

August
Google releases version 3.2 of the Google Play Services. The update includes several enhancements to the Location Based Services. With the r18 release of the support library Google released a new backward-compatible Action Bar implementation called ActionBarCompat. Motorola is releasing the Moto X - its first phone since the company has been acquired by Google. The same month Hugo Barra announces to leave Google after 5½ years to join the Xiaomi team in China.

September
RenderScript is now part of the support library and can be used on plaform versions all the way back to Android 2.2 (Froyo). Jean-Baptiste Queru, who worked on the Android Open Source Project at Google, starts a new job at Yahoo. Google launches the Android device manager website to locate, lock and ring misplaced devices.

October
After a lot of leaks and rumors a new Nexus phone is released on Halloween. Together with the Nexus 5 a new Android version - Android 4.4 KitKat - is published. Full-screen immersive mode, a new transitions framework, a printing framework and a storage access framework are some of the many new features. In addition to that he Google Play Services are updated to version 4.0. With Romain Guy another popular Android team member is leaving - but remaining at Google.

November
The App Translation Service, announced at Google I/O, is now available for every developer. Motorola releases a second phone - the Moto G. Android hits a new record with 80% market share. The Google Glass team releases a first sneak peek version of the Glass development kit (GDK).

December
Two small updates for Android KitKat are released: Android 4.4.1 and 4.4.2. The Android device manager is now available as an app.

The Android Design in Action team releases its 2013 Recap:

2014?
What has been your Android highlight in 2013 and what are your wishes for 2014?