Up until Android 9 Pie, Google named its OS releases after sweet treats in alphabetical order. But with Android 10 it abandoned the naming scheme and decided to stick with the numbers.
Despite that decision being made Google still refers to the version builds of Android by dessert names internally. On the All About Android podcast this week, VP Engineering for Android Dave Burke said that Android 11 is referred to as ‘RVC’, for Red Velvet Cake.
Android 11 is Android R alphabetically, hence the choice. Burke said though that it would not appear as RVC anywhere in the Android builds, and will display as R. On phones running Android 10, the icon that appears after a software update in the status bar is a Q.
Google probably wanted Android to appear slicker and less childlike to a wider audience by dropping the treat names, even though we and the rest of the Android faithful liked the bit of character the scheme fused into the branding.
At least the folks who build Android get to have a little bit of fun while we reminisce about Lollipop, Marshmallow, Oreo and the rest.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.