Highlights
- Google and other smartphone OEMs have not yet disclosed the launch date.
- Google Discover is coming to low-cost phones with Android 13 Go.
- For those who enjoy reading news articles, the feature might be very helpful.
The Go Edition of Android 13 has been released by Google for low-cost smartphones with very basic features. The Go edition was released five years ago to help smartphone makers in producing fairly priced smartphones with tailored software experience. Only the necessary apps are included in this condensed version of Android, and removes the unnecessary ones. Google’s own apps, such as Chrome and Gmail, which tend to be quite heavy, are designed for a convenient user experience.
Smartphones with up to 3GB of RAM frequently come with Android Go editions.
Google claims that there are over 250 million active Android Go-powered devices every month in a blog post. It is bringing Google Play System Updates to Android Go-powered smartphones to make sure that devices can get important software updates outside of the major Android release in order to help consumers in staying safe online. According to Google, “This will make the delivery of critical updates quick and simple without compromising storage availability on the device”.
For the first time, Google is making “Material You” available on eligible smartphones with Android 13 Go. Google’s unified design language, Material You, was first launched last year. The phone uses this feature to take colours from the wallpaper and adjust app icons and fonts. For Go-powered smartphones, the update also adds some of the most important features of Android 13 like Notification Permissions, App Language Preferences, and more.
Google Discover is a significant addition to Android 13 Go. For those who enjoy reading news articles, the feature might be very helpful. On the basis of your surfing history, it will effectively curate a list of news articles and other content. Users do have the choice to turn off the setting, though, in order to receive personalised content.
The rollout timetable has not yet been revealed by Google or other smartphone OEMs. In the upcoming weeks, we expect more details from the companies.
