There are so many buzzwords! You can never remember them all, because people (mostly Google) mint new ones all the times. Here are the ones I’ve run across lately:

Table 1. Android Acronyms and Buzzwords
Name Meaning

3G,4G,5G…​

Third, fourth, fifth generation of anything, but commonly used for versions of cellular signal and (in a different series) WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.

A/B

Two system partitions for background update, fallback.

Activity

One screen the user interacts with

AGP

Android Gradle Plugin (whose version number changeth often!)

AIDL

Interface Def’n Language

a.o.*

Java package android.os.*

AOSP

Android Open Source Project

APEX

Android Pony EXpress

Arm

CPU type used on most mobile devices

ART

Android Run Time: a Dalvik replacement (Android 5+)

ASEC

Android SEcure Container - security for files on removable storage (Froyo)

AVB

Android Verified Boot

AVC

SELinux Access Vector Cache, where denials are kept in memory. Used in denial messages.

a.w.*

Java package android.widget.*

AWS

Not Amazon Web Services, but Advanced Wireless Service, frequency band for 3G/4G cell phone service

BDSM

Tool created by Jonathan Levin - Bindump, DumpSys, Service and More dumper

Binder

Basic Inter-Process Communication mechanism in Android

Bionic

Android’s C library

blob

A binary file not supplied in source, usually from chip/hardware vendors

Broadcast Receiver

App component for receiving system-wide change notifications

BSD

Berkeley Software Distribution - originally from UCB, now several projects presenting an alternative to Linux

BSP

Board Support Package/Provider - SoC firmware level

C++

C Incremented aka "C with Classes" for OOP (1977-ish)

C

Major computer programming language since 1973; used in VMs and in JNI. Influence C++, Java, C#, many more.

C#

Microsoft language which started with Java syntax and CLR api names

CTS

Compatibility Test Suite, Google’s test suite for device wishing to ship GMS.

DAC

Discretionary Access Control - relies on user to set permissions restrictively

Dalvik

Original VM for Android (up to 4.4)

Dart

C-family OO Language used in Flutter

DEX

Dalvik Executable: Android bytecode format (format still used with ART)

DTB

Device Tree Blob - ARM-specific

DTBO

Device Tree Blob Overlays - ARM-specific

DTO

Device Tree Overlay - ARM-specific hardware description

eBPF

Android extensible implementation of Berkeley Packet Filter

Flutter

Google toolkit for cross-platform apps, supporting mobile, desktop, web & Fuchsia

Fuchsia

Alternate device/mobile operating system from Google (not Linux based)

GAPP

Google Apps (also Google Advanced Protection Program for account protection)

GMS

Google Mobile Services: code that supports most Google services such as Play, Maps, etc.

GPU

Graphics Processor Unit: processor core specialized for, well, graphics processing. Usually generates images that are fed to a separate display controller.

GSI

Generic System Image

HAL

Hardware Abstraction Layer

HIDL

Hardware Interface Definition Language

HIDL

Hardware/HAL Interface Def’n - obsolete, AIDL variant for HW vendor interfacing

Intent

Java object message representing Intention to perform some action (or notification)

IPC

Inter-Process Communication (like networking but on the same system)

Java

OO Programming language (1995); original language of most Android apps

JetPack

Consolidation of newer APIs (packages androidx.*)

JNI

Java Native Interface: allows to run code written in C/C++

Kotlin

Newer language for writing Android apps

LineageOS

Community project to build enhanced AOSP images for many devices

LSM

Short for Linux Security Modules, a framework which is part of Linux, allows supporting various security implementations.

LTTng

Linux Trace Tool NG

MAC

Mandatory Access Control, a type of access control via which an OS constrains the ability of code to perform actions - the operation must be allowed both by the MAC policy and by any DAC that has been set

macro

A single instruction that expands into a set of instructions when invoked

Mali

A family of GPU designs whose IP is owned by Arm. Often used on Arm-based Android designs.

NAN

Neighborhood Aware Networking

NDK

Native Devel Kit - tools for JNI dev

*Nix

Original 'starnix'; Blanket term for Unix, Linux and like systems

Nothing

Anl name of a particular Android OEM

NSA

National Security Agency of the United States government. Origin of Ghidra.

OAT

'Ahead Of Time' i.e., compiled from DEX to native (acronym reordered for humor) - OAT files are ELF (0x7f 45 4c 46)

OBB

Opaque Binary Blob

ODEX

Optimized DEX file (magic number is 'dey\n035\0' or 0x64 65 0x79 0a 30 33 35 00)

ODM

Original Device Manager - device vendor code level

OEM

Original Equipment Manufacturer - a company that makes Android devices

OOP

Object-oriented programming

PID

Process ID, on Unix/Linux

Pixel

Google’s own line of Android devices, named after Picture Element

Pixel

Picture Element: Each tiny dot making up an image on screen or on a printer.

regex

Regular Expression, a powerful and concise pattern-matching technology.

RPC

Remote Procedure Call (Calling a method on a remote object, in Android usually via Binder)

RIL

Rollback Index (to prevent malware downgrading your device to a less-secure Android version)

scontext

SELinux - Short for Source Context, also referred to as Domain.

SELinux

Short for Security-Enhanced Linux.

SELinux policy

Policy used by SELinux which specifies a set of permissions.

Service

App Component for running in background

SGL

Simple Graphics Library (layer over OpenGL/Vulkan)

SoC

System on a Chip (these are also used in desktop/laptop PCs)

SQLite

SQL subset database that runs in-process; built-in on most mobile OSes

Starnix

Google project to let Fuchsia run Android & Linux apps

/system

Main Filesystem on Android

tclass

SELinux - Short for Target Class.

tcontext

SELinux - Short for Target Context.

Tensor

Google SOC based on Arm

Treble

System re-org to allow easier updating of 3rd-party devices

UID

User ID number assigned to each account

USAP

Unspecialized App Process (blank from Zygote to become an app)

vbmeta

Verified Boot Metadata

/vendor

Partition or directory for OEM-specific files

VINTF

Vendor Interface Object. If you need to know this, you know it.

VNDK

Vendor Native Development Kit, set of vendor-exclusive libraries for building HAL

Vulkan

Graphics API lower level than OpenGL

XDA

Community forum for alternate AOSP builders