When it comes to the name for the next version of Android, it is generally considered a carefully kept secret. Supposedly, very few people within the company know what it will and only a select few will be told about it ahead of time. This is generally for things like constructing the statue, creating marketing material, the easter egg, etc. However, Google has been shoving Android Oreo in our faces for close to three years now and it still created a huge debate within the community.
Google has been known to troll the Android community time and time again with all sorts of unannounced details. The company could be getting ready to launch a new smartphone and then they'll use a prototype dummy of a device in some marketing material for an application that gets the community riled up as they debate if they just revealed the new device. Before KitKat was launched, there was a Key Lime Pie teased during a Google I/O developer session in 2013, for example. At Google I/O 2015, Dave Burke even wore an Android Wear watch that displayed Milkshake, Milk, and a few other possible desserts like… Malt Whiskey?
Rumors of Milkshake are exaggerated. My watch face hack cycles thru' my fav M desserts :). Doodles by @dsandler! http://pic.twitter.com/0GwoQ78thD
— Dave Burke (@davey_burke) May 28, 2015
Over time, many of us have become accustomed to their ways and figured out how some of this stuff works. The company does have an internal codename for the next version of Android they're working on. Back in the KitKat days it was indeed Key Lime Pie. We saw the letters KLP show up in AOPS commits from Google when referring to this next version. The same thing happened with Lollipop as we saw LMP show up in commits and that caused people to speculate 6.0 would be called Lemon Meringue Pie.
This happened again with Android 8.0 when OC, OC-MR1 and even the full word Oatmeal Cookie started showing up in Google's documentation for Android. Each time this happens there's a segment of the community who goes out there and claims Google has confirmed the name of the next version of Android. Then the other segment of the community has been through this time and time again and ignores those claims since they know it is virtually never the case.
Things changed this time around though as Oreo is something that has been teased since October 2014. Back when the company was hyping up the announcement of Android 5.0 Lollipop, they uploaded the video you see above. It's an audition call so to speak and they used that to show off a number of potential names for the 5.0 update. This video shows off Lemon Meringue Pie, Ladyfingers, Lava Cake, Lemon Drop, and even an Oreo.
The bit was that the Oreo wasn't aware that this was a casting call for L and that he would have to wait 3 more years before coming back. So all the way back in 2014 we have seen Google putting the name of Android 8.0 right in front of our faces. This continued on with Google's Senior Vice President of platforms and ecosystems (Android, Chrome, Chrome OS and Google Play) teasing Android Oreo countless times on his Twitter account.
Now we've had Google employees tease names of the upcoming update in the past, but they have always been wrong. This has happened from David Burke and even Google CEO Sundar Pichai himself. It was all in good fun since again, it was virtually never the names they were actually going to pick anyway. So some people looked at it and said the name was confirmed, while others had seen this before and started to assume any names they teased were essentially options that wouldn't be picked.
That's where I was in all of this. I had seen employees teasing Android update names time and time again and just learned to ignore them because they simply would not be picked. I'm in the process of eating my own words in this case because that is exactly what happened this year with Android Oreo. XDA's Daniel Marchena is in the same boat, while other writers within our staff are rejoicing at the fact they were correct – in a sad, irrelevant nerdy way. Google even went as far as to give out little packages of Oreos at Google I/O earlier this year (which Steven Zimmerman was lucky enough to check out) and, to me, that assuredly closed all the possible doors of it happening.
People were even pointing at the Android 8.0 developer preview Octopus easter egg as confirmation that it would be Android Oreo (with the mouth/teeth being the creme filling). So now we've come full circle where Google used to never use a name for Android that they had teased to putting everything back on the table again now. We assume this is working just like we saw with 4.4 KitKat where it's a mutual partnership and that no money has been exchanged for it.
Not only does the new Android statue feature an Oreo, but it has a cape to fit the superhero trend that has been happening in Hollywood. Let's hope the new update is as powerful as Google is hyping it up to be.
So tell us your thoughts about the name of Android 8.0 Oreo. Is this a name that you had completely written off because of all the teasers? Was it something you had been hoping for from the start? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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