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For many years, Android was known for its quirky dessert nicknames.
Froyo, Ice Cream Sandwich, Lollipop, Oreo, and more.
It was a yearly tradition to find out the new name, but then that came to an end.
Jon Chica / Shutterstock.com
Internally, it was codenamed “Astro Boy,” but there was no public nickname attached to it.
A year later, Android 1.1 was codenamed “Petit Four”—a small bite-sized confectionery.
Ryan Gibson, the project manager, came up with the idea of using confectionery-based nicknames for public releases.
In April 2009, Android 1.5 was released with “Cupcake” as the public nickname.
Before each new version was released, Google would unveil the statue.
This was often how Google would officially announce the nickname.
The statues can still be found at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Since then, it’s been plain version numbers and no fun nicknames.
Related:What Version of Android Do I Have?
Sweet Confusion
In August 2019, Google released Android 10…just 10.
After nearly a decade of fun nicknames and cute statues, the tradition came to an end.
It wasn’t that Google couldn’t come up with a dessert for the letter “Q.”
“However, the latter demonstrated a problem with the dessert names.
Quindim is a custard dessert popular in Brazil.
How many people outside of Brazil are familiar with it?
Desserts—like food in general—can be highly regional.
Food tends to sometimes be a local thing.”
The result was “Android 10,” and the following versions have been named in the same way.
For example, Android 9 Pie’s codename was “Pistachio Ice Cream.”
Those internal codenames have continued past the public nicknames.
Android 10’s internal codename was “Quince Tart.”
Android 11 was “Red Velvet Cake.”
Android 12 was “Snow Cone.”
Android 13 was “Tiramisu.”
It’s a little sad thatAndroid phonesdon’t come with dessert nicknames anymore.
Android has matured a lot over the years, and so has its branding.
