Google says there are more than 200 Android Go devices available across 120+ countries. More than 100 manufacturers plan to release Android Go devices before the end of the year.
Google has announced the next iteration of Android (Go Edition). As was expected, with each new version of Android, a Go Edition of that operating software will be launched for devices with low-end hardware, specifically 512MB to 1GB RAM. Keeping with its promise, Google has now announced Android 9 Pie (Go Edition), which will succeed Android Oreo (Go Edition). Google recently made Android 9 Pie official for Pixel users and multiple other Android smartphone makers have already released a timeline for when their devices will receive the Android P update.
Android 9 Pie (Go Edition) brings a number of improvements over Android Oreo (Go Edition). Google writes in a blogpost that Android 9 Pie (Go Edition) will come with up to an additional 500MB of storage out of the box, faster device boot times, top-of-the-line security features like verified boot, and an accessible dashboard for tracking and monitoring data consumption.
Google claims that the free storage space available on Android 9 Pie (Go Edition) will be “twice what you’d find on a non-Go edition phone”. Google hopes this will boost the performance of smartphones running the new optimised OS. “Collectively, these features help solve some of the most common pain points for entry-level device owners: storage, performance, data management and security,” Google wrote in its blogpost.
Google also revisited its Android Go-optimised apps in the same blogpost. An important part of the stripped down OS are the Go apps that have been optimised to run smoothly on low-end/entry-level smartphones. Google has already released Go versions of most of its own apps including Google Go, Maps Go, Google Assistant Go, YouTube Go, Files Go and the likes. All these apps have been optimised to run smoothly with up to 1GB of RAM to spare. They also take up less space compared to their full versions found on the Play Store.
With Go Edition apps, Google offers a redesigned Play Store highlighting the lightweight apps, but that doesn’t mean the full version of the apps won’t be supported on phones running Android Go. Google clarified that as long as the developer enables support for the hardware, the apps will run.
Google did not announce how and when the existing Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphones like the Nokia 1, Micromax Bharat Go, Lava Z50 and others will receive the Android 9 Pie (Go Edition) update. However, the company did say that the first Android P (Go Edition) phones will release sometime in the fall.
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