Google introduces Android Go for budget smartphones

By admin On May 18, 2017

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Google presented the Android Go operating system during its own developer conference I/O. This version is a slimmed down version of Android and is intended to run on budget smartphones.

Android Go is intended for smartphones with relatively little RAM; the operating system should already be able to run properly on smartphones with 512MB ram and is intended for devices with 1GB ram or less. It is a slimmed-down version where certain apps and Google Play Store are optimized to be less taxing on the system and use less data. Optimized apps are specially marked in the Play Store.

Another spearhead is the emphasis on limiting and better controlling mobile data use. Controls to monitor data usage have been added to the ‘quick settings’ so that users always have quick access.

Partly to save data, YouTube Go will preview the desired video before loading the entire video. Videos can also be saved for offline use and have also been adapted for peer-to-peer sharing so that those who share the video with also spend less data.

In addition, the existing option in Chrome to optimize and limit data usage will be enabled by default. This option can result in lower costs and faster web pages loading on slower connections by limiting the amount of data Chrome uses.

For creating optimized apps from Android Go, Google has created Building for Billions. Developers are helped with this program to optimize their apps for the budget devices that Android Go will mainly run on. Android Go is coming in 2018 and Google focuses mainly, but apparently not exclusively, on emerging markets. The company reports that Go is available for all smartphones with 1GB of RAM or less.

Android Go is part of Android O, the new version of the operating system of which Google released a public beta on Wednesday. The company demonstrated some new features of Android O, such as the ability to show notifications from apps by holding down the app icon. In addition, the starting time and battery life should be improved. The release should take place sometime in the third quarter. Nougat came out in mid-August last year.