During today’s I/O keynote, Google unveiled a new initiative dubbed Android Go. The project aims to deliver a smooth mobile experience on affordable devices with 1GB of RAM or less.
Most customers across the world shop in the budget sector and Google knows this too well. With this in mind, Android Go will optimize Android O to run on low-end devices with average specs. But that’s not all – it will also pack a new set of core Google apps that utilize less data, as well as a new version of the Play Store populated with apps designed to work on affordable smartphone.
Google said its own Chrome Data Saver feature will be turned on by default on Android Go devices. On top of that, instead of YouTube these phones will ship out with the YouTube Go version which has a number of data-saving features baked in. First, it will allow users to preview a video via a series of screenshots to help them decide whether the video is worth watching or not. Secondly the app also displays info about data usage in various format versions, as well as allowing users to download the videos for later offline viewing.
Google says the first Android Go powered devices will start shipping next year.
