Back in May at Google I/O, Google announced a version of Android Os that will be custom-designed for low-end Android phones. The modified version of the OS is being officially released by Google along with Android 8.1.
So what is Android Oreo (Go Edition)?
Firstly, 'Android Oreo Go' or 'Android Go' is not another OS for the android phones, but it's simply a modified version of Android Oreo which is designed for devices with 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM. But the question is, why does Google have to make the OS adapt to the low-end specifications when most of the new flagship Android devices like Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus (6GB RAM), OnePlus 5 (6/8 GB RAM) or HTC U11 (4/6 GB RAM) come with more than enough RAM?
The answer is that Google wanted to overcome the task of running the same operating system on both flagships and low-priced phones. In a way, Google wanted to make its latest OS be available for even the most affordable Android smartphones.
Features:
The OS is re-optimized by having only a few pre-installed applications, so now it takes roughly half of the internal space that Android Nougat used to take and the user has now more space to store more data and applications on a device with less internal memory. Not only that, with light-weight OS, smartphones can perform faster even with their limited hardware capabilities.
It's not only the OS, but also some of the core Google apps are getting revamped for better performance.
With Android Go, Google is also releasing Gmail Go, Google Maps Go, Assistant Go and a couple of other Google apps redesigned to take 50% of storage space the regular version used to did while making it more efficient.
Talking about the new applications, Google also launched two new apps specifically for Android Go: Files Go and Google Go.
Files Go is a file manager app that lets the user to easily delete unnecessary files and free space, while Google Go provides access to Google services such as Search, Voice Search, GIFs, YouTube, Translate, and Maps and includes a search bar all with-in a small sized app.
But like everything else, benefits comes with some disadvantages as well and it is going to take some time to explore the limitations of the OS once it is available for general population to get their hands on it.
Conclusion
It is a good step by Google to make the new features available for every kind of smartphone user as Android Go is available for OEMs and we will soon see smartphones running this new OS.
