Android 11: First place in the Android distribution chart for 2022!
Google has updated its chart showing the percentage of Android devices running various versions of the operating system, but there are no details yet on the adoption rate of Android 12.
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Historically, Google freely offered this information on the web in the form of a frequently updated pie chart, assigning a percentage to each Android version. However, this data ended up working against Google and is used to contrast Apple for new versions of iOS. Over time, this chart was updated less frequently and was eventually removed.
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More recently, Google has taken a new approach with the Android distribution chart, placing the information in Android Studio in a way that shows the percentage of devices on a particular version or newer. The Android Studio chart is updated roughly every six months to a year, with the previous update coming in November and a new version appearing on May 9th.
According to new distribution data for 2022, devices running Android 11 and above now make up the largest single piece of the pie at 28.3%, up from 24.2%. This is honestly not surprising, given the popularity of Samsung devices and how the company keeps even affordable devices , even up to Android 12.
To match this, the share of devices still running Android 10 has shrunk to 23.9% compared to a share of 26.5% in November.
The absence of Android 12 in this chart may have to do with the purpose of the chart, rather than a case of low adoption . As 9to5Google notes, the chart is intended to help developers decide which Android version to support. New apps and app updates are currently required to target Android 11 (API level 30) or higher, but the minimum supported version is really up to developers to decide. This data should at least help illustrate the overall user base a developer can access.
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With apps required to support Android 12,Google may not feel the need to include distribution statistics for this version for this specific purpose, but we're sure some publishers would appreciate having some idea of this admittedly tiny segment of the audience — depending on how good the data is, it could help them shape their development roadmap.
Information source: 9to5google.com
