Google stopped using dessert names with Android 10 and Android 11 in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and Android 9's Pie seemed to signal the end of the era in 2018. What prompted Google to stop? Kaori Miyake, Google's communications manager for Android, said at the time: “We've received feedback from users over the years that the names weren't always intuitively understandable for everyone in the global community.”
The new statue of Android 15 Vanilla Ice Cream has arrived in Mountain View. | Image credit: 9to5Google
The statue depicts the green Android bug droid sitting on a bench and enjoying a vanilla ice cream cone. This could mean that we can rule out “Waffle Cone” being used as the dessert name for next year's Android W. The best minds in Mountain View will have to think hard to come up with the dessert names for Android 17, Android 18, and Android 19 from 2026 onwards, as the desserts must begin with the letters “X,” “Y,” and “Z.” Perhaps this requires using the most commonly used two letters of 2024-AI.
Just hearing some of the dessert names from the early days of Android brings back a lot of memories. Who could forget Android 2.0-2.1 Eclair, which powered the first true iPhone challenger, the Motorola DROID. There was Android Froyo (2.2-2.2.3), Gingerbread (2.3-2.3.7) and many more.