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Consider the following sentence:

I am developing an application to be installed on Android.

And this:

This has been a major flaw in Android...

To be clear I am unsure of the usage of "in" vs. "on". When should I use "in" and when to use "on"?

2hamed
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  • This question is way too broad. But if you limit it to the two particular examples, the answer is: just memorize it. That's how native speakers learn it as well. A flaw is in something. Applications are installed on platforms. – RegDwigнt Mar 02 '12 at 11:18
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    I think a simple analogy is butter on bread and hole in bread. You never say I'm spreading butter in bread. even if the butter melts and gets in the bread. And would there be a hole on the bread? Perhaps, there's a hole in the butter that's on the bread. software/platform = butter/bread. defect/program = hole/bread. – ADTC May 06 '18 at 15:39

1 Answers1

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Install software on a platform. Find defects in a program.

If you are developing an application to be installed in Android, then it's going to be incorporated into that software and form part of the platform.

If you find a major flaw on Android, you are not talking about Android itself, but something else which is running on that platform (and which works well on other platforms).

Andrew Leach
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