Anything but our just desserts for future Android version names
posted Friday Aug 23, 2019 by Scott Ertz
One of the most popular and long-standing traditions in the Android ecosystem is the naming convention. While Android versions have numbers, like most software, they have also famously had development names that are taken from the names of desserts. Some have been generic, like Android 9 Pie, while others have been named in partnership with dessert brands, like Android 8 Oreo. Trying to guess what the name of the next version is going to be is one of the best parts of the development cycle. Unfortunately, that is all coming to an end right now.
Android is seeing its first branding update since 2014, and with the update comes the end of the sweet names. It's not a huge surprise that it is coming with Android 10 (the official and only name of the next version) because finding a dessert product that starts with a Q was going to be a challenge. Before this week's announcement, the internet was already ablaze with ideas on what the next version's name might be, and none of them were good. Quiche, the egg-based French dish was a front-runner, but it's not a sweet product. A renewed relationship with Nestle could have brought about Android 10 Quik, but that was a stretch.
In addition to the naming convention change, Android also saw a more noticeable branding update, affecting its logo and Bugdroid, the mascot for the operating system. The new logo uses a less bold font face, and removes the terrible lowercase n and r, replacing them with more standard looking letters. The new logo also comes along with a new color palette, starting with a new green and using orange, yellow, and three varieties of blue. The new colors come as Material Design 2 hits the Play Store, stripping it of its color entirely.
