Which Google operating system was first released publicly in 2008 for mobile phones?

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The Google operating system first released publicly for mobile phones in 2008 was Android.

Android 1.0 was released on September 23, 2008, alongside the HTC Dream, also sold as the T-Mobile G1. Google had acquired Android Inc. in 2005, but the public operating system arrived several years later. Android was built on a modified Linux kernel and designed for touchscreen devices and other hardware.

Android is different from Chrome OS, which Google developed primarily for laptops and other computers. It is also different from Fuchsia, a later operating system project that uses the Zircon kernel. Android’s early versions were widely associated with dessert names, although Google ended that public naming convention with Android 10 in 2019.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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