Technology

Google just launched a new version of Android for low-budget phones

Android Oreo (Go) is essentially made for entry-level Android smartphones with less than 1GB RAM and hence uses less storage space, less memory and still runs smoothly.

Google noted that Android has grown to more than 2 billion active devices around the world, with more users in India than the US.

Sameer Samat, VP, Product Management, Play + Android, announced that Android Oreo (Go edition) - a new smartphone experience for entry-level devices - is available to the Android ecosystem of developers, partners and carriers as part of today's release of Android 8.1.

To help bikers find the most suitable route in India, Google has incorporated navigation routes for two-wheelers with Voice Assistant capabilities in its Maps feature. The two-wheeler mode uses machine learning to suggest more relevant routes for riders, using smaller roads and two-wheeler-friendly shortcuts.

The Go Edition comes equipped with a bunch of data-saving features, which have the potential to save more than 600 MB of data per year.

"Oreo devices with 512MB to 1GB of RAM will get all the optimisations that come with Android Oreo (Go edition), including a better performing OS with built-in data management features and security benefits", said Caesar Sengupta, Vice President, Next Billion Users Team at Google.

And don't worry: The Go Edition sports numerous signature features of its parent, Android Oreo, including Google Play Protect, which scans app downloads for malware. Innovations in content, coupled with Hotstar's consistent efforts to keep the app data-light, have ensured that Hotstar is often a new mobile data user's first app.

The feature will be rolled out gradually over the next few weeks to users, who will receive a notification when the feature becomes available to them. "It's less than 5MB to download, and search results in Google Go are optimized to save up to 40 per cent data", Sengupta added. Google Go is available as a preview starting today on the Google Play Store in India. Android Go is roughly half the size of Android 7.0 Nougat, saving a good deal of space for media the user really wants.

Google also announced "Files Go", an app that will help free up space, find files faster and share files offline on smartphones that come with less internal storage.

The Google Assistant for JioPhone will be available in English and Hindi. Since entry-level phones are less likely to have room to spare, the less space the OS takes, the more people have for their pictures and videos.

Google's Files Go, an app meant to clear out your phone clutter, is no longer in beta. She said, "In spite of the socio-economic challenges, thousands of Internet Saathis have gone on to do awesome things, once they learnt the Internet". With the new software, Google is also aiming at increasing internet adoption in the country.

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Google just launched a new version of Android for low-budget phones