Zygote
API 11 · HONEYCOMB

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Tablet-only release

released
2011-02-22
runtime
Dalvik
design
Holo
status
stable

The story

Tablets were the fastest-growing category and Android had nothing for them. The iPad had launched in 2010.

The problem

A phone UI stretched onto a 10-inch screen is not a tablet UI.

Honeycomb introduced Holo, the action bar, Fragments and hardware-accelerated 2D drawing. It was tablet-only and rushed, but the design language and the Fragment model lasted years.

The one thing to remember

The first Android design language, and the origin of Fragments.

What shipped

  • Tablet-only release
  • The Holo design language arrives
  • Fragments
  • Action bar
  • Hardware-accelerated 2D rendering

Platform internals

What changed underneath the APIs. These are the changes this site's architecture modules explain in depth.

  • Hardware acceleration for the View system (opt-in per app)

What developers had to deal with

  • android.app.Fragment
  • Hardware acceleration via android:hardwareAccelerated
  • Loader API
  • New animation framework

Behaviour changes

The full archive has every recorded change with its migration advice.

targetingruntime

NetworkOnMainThreadException

Network operations on the main thread throw an exception for apps targeting Honeycomb.

What to doMove network calls to a background thread.

targetingui

Hardware acceleration

Apps targeting Honeycomb get hardware-accelerated drawing by default.

What to doTest custom views with hardware acceleration enabled.

targetingui

Insets and display cutout behaviour

Android 11 makes inset handling stricter around cutouts and gesture navigation.

What to doUse the WindowInsets APIs and test on devices with cutouts.

targetingstorage

All files access is restricted

MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE is a special permission that Play reviews strictly.

What to doUse scoped storage APIs; request all-files access only if the app is a file manager or similar.

Permissions introduced here

  • BIND_REMOTEVIEWSsignature|privileged

Where this sits

Release 11 of 37 API levels, by date
Headline features
5
Architecture changes
1
Developer changes
4
Sources cited
3

Kernel

This release shipped on Linux kernel versions 2.6.36. Kernel versions vary by device.