What will Google call Android 10 Q?

Android P — officially known as Android 9 Pie — was always going to be the easy one.

From Popsicle to Peppermint to Pastry to Popcorn to Pop-Tarts to Praline to Peanut Brittle to Pop Rocks to Pancake to Panna Cotta to Pez to Peeps to Pudding to Parfait to Pocky to Pound Cake to Punschkrapfen to Profiterole to Patbingsu, there was a plethora of possibilities for P’s pseudonym. (And that’s not even counting fruits like Pear, Passionfruit, Pumpkin, Plum, Peach, or Pamplemousse.)

But now that Pie’s name is set and done, the eyes of the Android naming community must turn to the real challenge: this year’s Android 10 Q release. We’ve always known that, one day, we’d have to cross this road, given Google’s abecedarian naming conventions for Android, and with Google I/O 2019 right around the corner, it’s time to revisit this nomenclature nightmare to see what the possibilities are.

There have been tough challenges before: Google had to turn to the internet for suggestions for the naming of Android N, and O would have probably been a calamity had Google not been able to partner with Nabisco to get the Oreo name.

But even N and O look like simple solutions compared to what awaits Q. Per Google’s somewhat outdated history of Android website, each version of Android is “named after something sweet,” and, simply put, there aren’t a lot of marketable desserts or snacks that start with the letter Q. Actually, there aren’t a lot of foods that start with a Q, period, let alone a tasty treat that would fit in alongside Cupcake, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop, Marshmallow, Nougat, Oreo, and Pie.

Consulting the internet doesn’t give a lot of options, either. There are a few desserts that do start with Q, but most of them originate outside of America. And while they’re surely delicious, they likely lack the level of familiarity that Google is looking for on a marketing level in the US.

What if Google bends the rules and expands to other foods that start with Q? After all, you could probably make Quail or Quiche sweet if you were creative enough in the kitchen?

• Android 10 Quinoa
• Android 10 Quail
• Android 10 Quesadilla
• Android 10 Quiche

It’s also possible Google will use the landmark number 10 to begin a new naming scheme, similar to what Apple did for macOS versions when it already used every single big cat in the animal kingdom. In that case, the sky could be the limit for Android Q. Google could use saints! Countries! D&D monsters! Planets! Perhaps a Star Trek tie-in to go with Patrick Stewart’s new show? Or what about just using regular numbers? Anything could happen!

Update May 6th, 2019, 4:15PM ET: Added additional guesses for Android Q’s name and more details ahead of Google I/O 2019.

This article is from The Verge