Android Nougat dethrones Marshmallow to become Google's most popular OS

Just after 18 months of its release, Google's mobile operating system Android Nougat has become the most popular version of the OS. The latest Android distributions charts provide an insight into the popularity of several Android OS versions. Meanwhile, Android Marshmallow has now been dethroned as the flag bearer for Google's arsenal of operating systems.

Besides, Android Oreo has also passed the one percent adoption mark within five months of its launch. The company released its distribution chart for February 2018 where Android Nougat grabs 28.5 percent of the market share, while Marshmallow slips to the second spot with 28.1 percent of the whole market share.

The third position on the charts was secured by Android Lollipop with 24.6 percent market share. Android Nougat has witnessed steady growth for the past several months, growing up to 2.2 percent from January. Nougat 7.1 grabbed 6.2 percent up from 5.2 percent in January. Both Nougat 7.0 and Nougat 7.1 were at 20.6 percent in November last year and reached up to 26.3 percent in January.

Android Marshmallow and Lollipop, on the other hand, faced decline from their respective market shares. What's more interesting is that Android 4.4 KitKat is still in the business grabbing 12 percent of the whole market share. The long-dated OS - Android Gingerbread still has 0.3 percent of the market share.

The distribution charts are based on the number of devices visiting Google Play, which is only compatible with Android 2.2 and above.

Google is constantly pushing updates to its platforms to make the user experience smooth and hassle-free. And if you are a Google phone user then your smartphones will be the first to taste these upgrades.

In January, the company released a new security patch for supported Pixel and Nexus devices. The patch was pushed for Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, and Pixel C, aiming to provide a secure experience to its users.

The January 5 patch fixed up to 18 vulnerabilities, while the former January 1 patch took care of 20 vulnerabilities.

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The company has advised users to update their smartphones to the January 2018 Android Security Patch as soon as possible. "All supported Google devices will receive an update on the 2018-01-05 patch level. We encourage all customers to accept these updates to their devices," the company has said.