Google launches Android Oreo Go edition for low-end phones

 

At Google I/O in May of this year, Google promised a version of Android custom-designed for low-end devices. Today, “Android Go (Oreo edition)” is being made available for device manufacturers and developers. That doesn’t mean it’s available to users yet — but presumably that’ll happen in fairly short order.

The premise behind Android Go is pretty simple. It’s a build of Android Oreo that is designed to run better on phones with either 512MB or 1GB of RAM. By comparison, the Pixel 2 (like most flagships) has 4GB of RAM, while the iPhone X has 3GB and the Galaxy Note 8 has a whopping 6GB.

Making the same operating system work on both flagships and the cheapest of cheap phones is a challenge, but it’s one Google says it’s overcome. Go edition is not meant to be a “fork” of Android Oreo so much as a variant that a manufacturer can just set by ticking off a configuration flag.