A few days ago when Microsoft launched the Windows 10 S, several eyebrows were raised in skepticism. Well, Google is following suit and has announced a new project called Android ‘O’. Based on Android ‘O’, Android Go will be a lightweight version of Google’s latest operating system that will be optimized for lower end devices.
And when we say lower end, we mean lower end. The operating system is being aimed towards devices with seriously low specs — low as in less than 1 GB RAM low. The Play Store that will be packed in with the Android Go, will offer users suggestions as to what applications they can install on their device. The apps that will be highlighted by the Go Play Store will be ones that are less than 10MB in size and run even without the Internet.
Similarly, YouTube Go will be a seriously optimized version of the YouTube application that will allow users to watch videos even from the most lower end devices. With YouTube GO for instance, a short preview will load and play first so that the user can decide if he wants to waste his precious resources on that particular video.
Interestingly, YouTube Go will also be bringing a few premium features that until now, were limited to YouTube Red subscribers. For instance, you can download and save a video to your device and even share them between multiple Android Go devices using peer-to-peer transfers.
This particular operating system has been aimed at the developing countries, which is where Google hopes to gather its next 2 Billion users from. Launching an operating system specifically to cater to them certainly makes sense. Meanwhile, all version of Android are going to ship with an Android Go variant in the near future. Clearly, Google isn’t going to let small things like poor Internet come in the way of the company’s massive ambitions.
