# What is PoyntOS?

PoyntOS is the world’s first payment terminal operating system that provides developers with tools and resources to build applications for small and medium businesses. It consists of a combination between an Android-based platform and RESTful Cloud APIs to support integrations over the cloud.

This operating system can support GoDaddy Poynt Smart Terminals as well as GoDaddy Poynt-enabled terminals. The latter refers to any android-based terminal that is currently bundled with GoDaddy Poynt's commerce services.

# Differences between PoyntOS and Android

Although some of the main components within PoyntOS are based on Android, there are a few clear differences between the operating system running on GoDaddy Poynt devices and the Android OS running on regular devices like smartphones or tablets.

• GoDaddy Poynt devices, which are Marshmallow (API level 23) and above will not prompt for runtime permissions. They will grant permissions only during the installation process.

• Google applications such as YouTube, Chrome and Gmail are not available on any of our Smart Terminals.

• GoDaddy Poynt devices do not support Google Mobile Services such as the Google Search Engine. This means you will not be able to use Google APIs on our devices.

• Based on the nature of the Smart Terminal operations, GoDaddy Poynt devices bring hardware components that other Android-based devices won't include, such as receipt printer, card reader and payment interfaces. For this reason, we have a number of APIs to access these components.