Android has been a country of broadband and dial-up usage.
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google , based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets . Android 's user interface is mainly based on direct manipulation , using touch gestures that loosely correspond to real-world actions , such as swiping , tapping and pinching , to manipulate on-screen objects , along with a virtual keyboard for text input . Beginning with the first commercial Android device in September 2008 , the operating system has gone through multiple major releases , with the current version being 7.0 `` Nougat '' , released in August 2016 . Android has been the best-selling OS on tablets since 2013 , and runs on the vast majority of smartphones .