Android Go[1] was announced during the opening keynote of the Google I/O[2] developers conference in Mountain View on Wednesday. Since the announcement, there has been a lot of confusion regarding the project - is it a new version of Android? Can Android Go devices run all Android[3] apps, or only the apps that have been optimised for the Go experience? How will this impact OS updates for consumers, and what will developers need to do differently to optimise their apps for Android Go?
Unfortunately, in the immediate aftermath of the keynote[4], Google didn’t provide answers to a lot of these questions, and there isn’t a lot of information related to Android Go up on Google’s websites either. Thankfully, to answer all these queries - and a whole lot more - wee managed to get some time with Sameer Samat, the man who introduced Android Go on stage on Wednesday, and the VP of Product management for Android and Google Play. Here’s a FAQ on Android Go based on the answers Gadgets 360 got from Samat and other Google executives here in Mountain View.
Is Android Go a new version of Android?
Samat couldn’t be clearer on this: “Android Go is not a new version of Android, it’s not a different Android, it’s a project name inside Google.”
What will be the Android version that Go devices will ship with?
“We call it Android Go - it’s an internal name - but the OS that these partners will be shipping will be Android O - there’s no separate OS called Android Go,” Samat explains, just to drive home the point.
So what will be different about Android Go devices?
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