Assertion Partly supported AI assessment confidence: 85% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

TAT Built the Initial Design Team for Google Android

Hampus Jakobsson · How to Sell For $100m+ · Jan 21, 2016 · at 3:44

Hampus Jakobsson, co-founder of mobile UI company TAT, discusses the company's early client work prior to being acquired by BlackBerry.

0:00 / 0:06exact quote · 6.5s

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“We actually built the complete design team for Google Android. I worked with Andy Rubin in Mountain View.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) built the complete initial design team for Google Android.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim is partially true. The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) served as Google's principal external design contractor for Android 1.0 (shipping on the T-Mobile G1 in 2008), sending designers to Mountain View to create core UI elements such as the notification shade and default icons. However, TAT did not build Google's internal Android design organization (which was later established under Matias Duarte in 2010), nor was TAT the sole contributor to Android's initial design (other key contributors included San Francisco studio Mike and Maaike for hardware and early UI concepts, as well as Google internal designer Irina Blok for the Android robot logo).

TAT joined the Open Handset Alliance in November 2007 and was contracted by Google to design core graphical UI and interaction elements for Android 1.0.
Initial device credits and historical documentation show other design contributors to Android 1.0, including design firm Mike and Maaike and Google in-house designer Irina Blok.
Google did not retain TAT to build its internal design team; Google hired Matias Duarte in 2010 to build and lead its internal Android UX team, while TAT was acquired by RIM (BlackBerry) in December 2010.

Checked against

[1] forbes.com [2] eetimes.com [3] cnblogs.com [4] pcworld.com [5] gizmodo.com [6] scribd.com [7] financialpost.com [8] theguardian.com

The Astonishing Tribe Android design team Google "The Astonishing Tribe" "Chet Haase" Android TAT Astonishing Tribe Google Android initial design "Astonishing Tribe" "Android" design team "Andy Rubin" OR "Erick Tseng" "The Astonishing Tribe" "Android" design team Matias Duarte OR "Mike and Maaike" OR "German Bauer" Astonishing Tribe designed Android UI Google "The Astonishing Tribe" "Android" designer OR design team

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

Andy Rubin The Astonishing Tribe Google Android

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