An official launch event for Android 4.0 and the new Nexus phone was originally scheduled for October 11, 2011, at a CTIA trade show in San Diego. Android blog RootzWiki released photos in August 2011 showing a Nexus S running a build of ICS, depicting a new application menu layout resembling that of Honeycomb, and a new interface with blue-colored accenting. In June 2011, details also began to surface surrounding a then-new Nexus phone by Samsung to accompany ICS, which would notably exclude hardware navigation keys.

įollowing the tablet-only release 'Honeycomb', it was announced at Google I/O 2011 that the next version of Android, code named 'Ice Cream Sandwich' (ICS), would be emphasized providing a unified user experience between both smartphones and tablets. However, critics still felt that some of Android 4.0's stock apps were still lacking in quality and functionality in comparison to third-party equivalents, and regarded some of the operating system's new features, particularly the 'face unlock' feature, as being gimmicks.Īs of October 2022, statistics issued by Google indicate that 0.15% of all Android devices accessing Google Play run Ice Cream Sandwich. It also introduced a number of other new features, including a refreshed home screen, near-field communication (NFC) support and the ability to 'beam' content to another user using the technology, an updated web browser, a new contacts manager with social network integration, the ability to access the camera and control music playback from the lock screen, visual voicemail support, face recognition for device unlocking ('Face Unlock'), the ability to monitor and limit mobile data usage, and other internal improvements.Īndroid 4.0 received positive reviews by critics, who praised the cleaner, revamped appearance of the operating system in comparison to previous versions, along with its improved performance and functionality. As part of these efforts, it introduced a new visual appearance codenamed 'Holo', which is built around a cleaner, minimalist design, and a new default typeface named Roboto. The first phone with Android Ice Cream Sandwich was Samsung Galaxy Nexus.Īndroid 4.0 was focused on simplifying and modernizing the overall Android experience around a new set of human interface guidelines. Unveiled on October 19, 2011, Android 4.0 builds upon the significant changes made by the tablet-only release Android Honeycomb, in an effort to create a unified platform for both smartphones and tablets.

Unsupported, Google Play Services support dropped since December 2018 Īndroid Ice Cream Sandwich (or Android 4.0) is the 9th major version of the Android mobile operating system developed by Google.

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