At Google’s I/O annual developers conference keynote address[1], the Internet search giant announced its next major operating system Android O is now available as a public beta in the form of Developer Preview 2. Apart from this, the company also announced a new version of Android[2], called Android Go, designed for entry-level devices.
Sameer Samat, Vice President, Android and Play, took to the stage to talk about Android’s reach across countries and across the smartphones of all kinds. In order to bring Android to everyone, the company announced a stripped down software, called Android Go, for entry-level Android devices with 1GB or less of memory.
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Android Go focuses on three things - optimising the latest release of Android to run smoothly on entry-level devices, a rebuilt set of Google[4] apps that uses less memory, storage space and mobile data and finally a version of Play Store that will not only provide the entire catalogue but will also highlight apps specifically designed for entry-level users. These three features will ship to Android O devices with 1GB or less memory starting in 2018.
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Google is also designing apps like YouTube Go, Chrome and Gboard to use less memory and are easy on mobile data. The company is making optimisations to the system UI and the kernel to allow an Android O device built with the Go configuration to run smoothly on as low as 512MB to 1GB of memory.
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Devices with Android Go will have data management and savings in quick settings, and teaming up with...