Android annual overview 2021: the most important news summarized

Many pages further from the past year, we have a nice overview for you with the Android Annual Overview 2021. What was the most important news about Android last year? DroidApp calmly summarizes the year 2021 for you.

Android year overview 2021

Unfortunately, the year 2021 was again dominated by Corona. However, that does not mean that there was no further news. Over the past twelve months, we’ve done our best to bring you the most important news on all things Android, smartphones, carriers and more. If you want to read again what has happened in recent months, then we have the beautiful Android year overview 2021 ready for you, with the most important events per month.

January

The year 2021 started with the presentation of Samsung’s Galaxy S21 series. In addition, Tele2 started offering 5G subscriptions. Google released Play Points in the first month of the year, which are now available in the Netherlands. LG also showed its first smartphone with a rollable screen, a concept that we no longer have to expect on the market. There were also the new WhatsApp terms and conditions, which meant that Signal and Telegram both saw a significant increase in the number of users.

February

In February there was the first sign of Android 12, the latest Android version. Xiaomi came with the Mi 11 and Samsung has improved the update policy for its devices. This means that you can take advantage of updates even longer, both Android version updates and security updates.

March

In March we had new device announcements; we saw the Oppo Find X3 series, the OnePlus 9 series and the Moto G100. Samsung came up with the A52 and A72. It was made possible to make video calls with WhatsApp Desktop and Google came with the Nest Hub 2. TCL came to the Benelux with its own devices in March, after it had already released devices with Alcatel. In addition, Android Auto has only been officially available in the Netherlands and Belgium since this month.

April

April was the month with important news from LG. The manufacturer announced that it would permanently stop releasing smartphones. Updates will come; but we will not see new devices anymore. We have made an extensive, beautiful overview with ‘An ode to LG: how LG made the smartphone great‘. Furthermore, DroidApp started with the Update Bulletin, where we list which updates have been published every week. April was also the month of the massive Facebook leak. Sony came with its three smartphones for this year and Nokia came with the new X and G series.

To our great sadness we had to say goodbye to Henk van Loosbroek. A highly valued tipster and source of inspiration for the telecom world in the Netherlands.

May

In May there was Google I/O, but this year’s edition was not very exciting. We did see the official announcement of Android 12, with the most important big change; the new interface. Furthermore, Clubhouse came to Android; the app that was already very big on iOS. Google’s Nest Hub 2 came to the Netherlands and hundreds of SMS votes for the Eurovision Song Contest were not counted.

June

In the sixth month of the year 2021, in June, we saw the announcement of the OnePlus Nord CE from OnePlus, and the Galaxy A22 from Samsung. Motorola still seemed sensible to release a device with Android 10, the Defy. Google dropped the unlimited free storage and in the Play Store we saw the new ‘My apps’ overview, which was not exactly an improvement. In Google Maps the traffic lights were added.

July

In the summer of 2021, or what was left of it, we also got to see different news. In this month we had our own weather app test 2021, which we have been researching for years. Next came Carl Pei, former OnePlus founder with his own brand Nothing. OnePlus itself came with the OnePlus Nord 2, Nokia came with the Nokia XR20 with a robust design.

August

In August, DroidApp celebrated its 7.5 year anniversary, with once again great giveaways such as a photo contest. The Belgian government warns against the use of Chinese smartphones and Xiaomi saw that it became the largest smartphone manufacturer in Europe. Samsung released the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 in August.

September

In the ninth month of the year we have also listed the necessary news for you. We saw the Material You design for several apps, such as Gmail. Furthermore, T-Mobile Netherlands was acquired and OnePlus and Oppo came with the news that OxygenOS and ColorOS will be merged. Fairphone came with the Fairphone 4 and Oppo with the Reno 6 series.

October

October was the month in which Android 12 was finally released. This update also appeared for the first models. In October, Vodafone was hit three times by three major outages and there was the massive outage at WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. The Pixel 6 was here and Nokia presented a new tablet; the Nokia T20.

November

Motorola released the new G31 and G51 in November. There was also a successor for the G100; the Moto G200. Furthermore, OnePlus presented the Pac-Man edition of the Nord 2 and an investigation by Follow The Money revealed that Xiaomi devices sent private data to Chinese servers en masse. The providers withdrew their expensive smartphones from the shops because of violent robberies.

December

The month of December is not quite over yet, but we can certainly give you an overview with the most important news. Motorola announced which devices will be updated with Android 12. OnePlus celebrated its eighth birthday and sold ten million devices in 2021. Nokia was the second manufacturer to make Android 12 available for a device; in this case the X20. Motorola presented the Edge X30, which is the first smartphone with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. In addition, the roaming agreements will be extended until 2032 and the necessary annual overviews, such as those from Google and Spotify, have also been published. In addition, we presented the DroidApp Awards and listed all the writers their must-have apps of 2021.