Google has published its latest breakdown of platform usage, showing the proportion of active devices running each version of the Android OS. The data was collected during a 7-day period that ended on July 23, and it only represents devices that have visited the Google Play Store during that period, so to be clear, it does not include AOSP devices.
While the company used to publish this report monthly, it seems to be doing so less frequently, with the last one arriving on May 7.
| Version | Codename | API | May | This month | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.3.3 - 2.3.7 | Gingerbread | 10 | 0.3% | 0.2% | -0.1 |
| 4.0.3 - 4.0.4 | Ice Cream Sandwich | 15 | 0.4% | 0.3% | -0.1 |
| 4.1.x | Jelly Bean | 16 | 1.5% | 1.2% | -0.3 |
| 4.2.x | 17 | 2.2% | 1.9% | -0.3 | |
| 4.3.x | 18 | 0.6% | 0.5% | -0.1 | |
| 4.4 | KitKat | 19 | 10.3% | 9.1% | -1.2 |
| 5.0 | Lollipop | 21 | 4.8% | 4.2% | -0.6 |
| 5.1 | 22 | 17.6% | 16.2% | -1.4 | |
| 6.0 | Marshmallow | 23 | 25.5% | 23.5% | -2.2 |
| 7.0 | Nougat | 24 | 22.9% | 21.2% | -1.7 |
| 7.1 | 25 | 8.2% | 9.6% | 1.4 | |
| 8.0 | Oreo | 26 | 4.9% | 10.1% | 5.2 |
| 8.1 | 27 | 0.8% | 2.0% | 1.2 |
Obviously, the biggest gains this time come from Android Oreo, or more specifically, Android 8.0 Oreo. Even after over seven months on the market, Android 8.1 can"t seem to gain any serious momentum. Combined, Oreo accounts for 12.1% of all Google Play devices that have been used in the last month, and this is right before Android P launches.
Android Nougat saw its first real decline, with Android 7.1 still on the rise and enough people abandoning Android 7.0 to cancel that out. Marshmallow dropped by 2.2%, which is its most significant decline between two reports (remember, it"s been two and a half months this time).
Other older versions like Lollipop, KitKat, and Jelly Bean continue to decline in usage steadily. Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich both dropped by 0.1%, although they mostly remain stagnant.
Despite Android P being in its release candidate phase and the fact that the beta program extends well beyond Google"s first-party devices, it"s still not on the 0.1% of devices required to make the list.