Ask Jerry: Who are the 3 billion Android users?

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Does nearly half of the world really have an Android?

Anonymous asks:

Google says there are over three billion Android users. Apple say its has two billion. Are these numbers real?

Man, what a cool question. As someone who loves Android and numbers/math, I love it! Thanks so much for asking.

First, the easy answer: yes, those numbers are real. Google and Apple know they can't just lie about things that are verifiable because the hit to their reputation would be rough, at least for a little while.

They don't mean what you probably think they mean, though. If you pay attention to what they are saying, you'll notice they never actually say three billion people; they say devices. And the way devices are counted is a little squirrelly, too.

For the deeper answer, you have to start with what Android is. Android is a trademarked, privately built operating system owned by Google. It is built using the Android Open Source Project, the base code given away free for everyone. It's also open source, meaning that you can download the code and build it yourself.

Because of its licenses, most changes made to the original AOSP do not have to be open source or have the new code made available. Android is just that: software made using open-source code with changes done by Google, and then further changed by companies like Samsung. To use the name Android, you must follow all of Google's rules.

One of those rules is allowing access to the Google Play Store. For that, the software has to meet a bunch of other requirements concerning interoperability, so an app that works for one device should work the same with another. As long as they are the same type of device, that is.

Remember, an Android device doesn't have to be a phone. Wearables, tablets, media streamers, and more can also be powered by Android, and that means they also have access to Google's Play Store and other apps.

Finally, you have Chromebooks. They also run Android in a way, and they are counted when it comes to the more than three billion devices tag.

How they get counted is what really matters.

Monthly active devices

Your Android-powered devices regularly communicate with the Play Store if it's turned on and connected to the internet. Besides the analytics that Google loves to collect, they check for updates and work with Google Play Protect to keep bad apps away from the device.

As long as a device communicates with the Play Store at least once every 30 days, it is counted as an active device. That means it is part of that 3 billion+ statistic. An old phone you have lying around that only gets powered on occasionally will be counted as active for the month(s) it has been turned on at least once. The same goes for a TV box in a spare room you rarely use or a tablet you never pick up.

This also means that you are one user, but your devices are counted individually. I have two Android phones, one for work-related breaking of software and one for me to use. I also have an Android tablet, two Nvidia Shield Pro TV boxes, three Chromebooks, and a smartwatch. I'm one user with eight devices that get counted.

If everyone were like me, that would mean that the three billion devices are used by only 375 million separate people. Of course, not everyone has eight devices; some have one, and some have more than eight.

I'm not able to find any verifiable numbers concerning actual users and not devices. What I've seen ranges from four to seven billion people, but without the methodology showing how the numbers were reached, what they tell me is useless. And I'm not going to guess.

I can say that there aren't 3 billion+ people out there with an Android phone, though.