Android Oreo (Go edition): Has Google learnt its lesson from Android One?

Summer of 2014, Google CEO Sundar Pichai introduced Android One, the company’s ambitious move to bring the internet, and its Google services to entry-level smartphones in developing countries. However, Android One failed to meet its own expectations.

Today, during the Google for India event in New Delhi, Google unveiled a slew of new solutions, including the Android Go (Oreo edition). The company stated that this new software of Android is based on Oreo 8.0 and is specifically made for low-end handsets with 1GB RAM or less.

Now, this might look like Google’s attempt to re-launch Android One in a distinctive manner but, Android Go is different from Android One. Even though both platforms aim to raise the quality of low-end smartphones, their directions are different.

Android Go is fairly distinct from Android One as the former comes with no hardware and software restrictions and the latter completely depended on Google partnering directly with the manufacturer.

With Android Go, the main aim of the company is to introduce an enhanced Android experience. For those devices which run Android Go, the Google Play Store will offer lighter versions of popular apps, such as YouTube Go and others.

Android Go was unveiled at Google I/O this year as a special configuration of Android 8.1 Oreo for low-end devices. With the new low-end configuration of Android, the company hopes to capture the “next billion users”.