API 3 · CUPCAKE

Android 1.5 Cupcake

On-screen soft keyboard

released: 2009-04-27
runtime: Dalvik
design: pre-Holo
status: stable

The story

Six months after 1.0, Android was still catching up on basics that iPhone owners took for granted. The G1 shipped without a soft keyboard.

The problem

Hardware keyboards could not serve every device, and the platform had no framework for third-party input methods.

Cupcake added the soft keyboard and the input method framework, video recording and playback, widgets and copy/paste. The input method framework is why any keyboard app can replace the system one today.

The one thing to remember

Android learned that input is a framework, not a hardware feature.

What shipped

On-screen soft keyboard
Video recording and playback
Home screen widgets and folders
Copy and paste

What developers had to deal with

Input method framework for third-party keyboards
android.widget video and media improvements

Permissions introduced here

BIND_APPWIDGETunknown
BIND_INPUT_METHODsignature
MOUNT_FORMAT_FILESYSTEMSunknown
UPDATE_DEVICE_STATSunknown
WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGSunknown

Where this sits

Release 3 of 37 API levels, by date

Headline features: 4
Architecture changes: 0
Developer changes: 2
Sources cited: 3

Kernel

This release shipped on Linux kernel versions 2.6.27. Kernel versions vary by device.