Schlagwort: Next Billion Users

We first introduced Android (Go edition) in 2018 to provide a high-quality smartphone experience for entry-level device owners around the world. Since then, Android (Go edition) has brought improved speed, reliability, and security to over 100 million entry-level devices through apps and features specifically built to address local needs. Continuing on with that same mission, here’s a look at what’s new in Android 11 (Go edition).  

Improving communication, privacy and usability

On Android 11 (Go edition)  apps launch 20 percent faster than they did on Android 10 (Go edition), making it easier for you to switch between apps without your phone getting bogged down. 

Around the world people use different messaging apps to stay in touch, so they often find themselves toggling between them to chat with family and friends. Now Android 11 (Go edition) shows all of your conversations in a dedicated space in the notification section. This means you can see, respond to, and manage your conversations with family and friends all in one place, no matter what apps they use. 

Affordability shouldn’t mean compromising privacy and security, which is why we’ve ensured that Go edition smartphones have access to the same industry-leading privacy protections as any Android device. Android 11 (Go edition) comes with new privacy enhancements that make it easier to control how and when data on your device is shared. With one-time permissions, you can grant an app access to specific sensors like your microphone, camera or location, just in that instance. And if you haven’t used an app for an extended period of time, app permissions will “auto-reset” and you will immediately receive a notification of the change. You can always choose to re-grant the app permissions the next time you open the app. 

Grant individual apps one-time permissions to access sensors like your microphone, camera or location.

As devices with larger screen displays become more common,  Android 11 (Go edition) helps you take advantage of the increased screen real estate for your favorite apps. With gesture-based navigation you can go to the home screen, navigate backward, and fluidly switch between apps using simple swipes.

Switch between apps using simple swipes with gesture navigation

New app features

This year, we’ve also introduced improvements to our suite of apps that were specially designed for entry-level smartphones. For example, Safe Folder is a new feature in Files by Google that protects  personal files from being opened or accessed by others by storing them in a 4-digit PIN-encrypted folder.

Browse files  safely and securely with PIN-encrypted Safe Folder

More memory, more devices, more options

In the past two years, smartphone manufacturers have produced high-quality Android devices—with features like dual cameras or fingerprint scanners—at more affordable prices. As more of these memory-intensive features come to entry-level smartphones, our partners have asked us to improve performance on these devices, particularly around speed, storage, and memory. So, starting next month Android (Go edition) will be available on all new devices with up to 2GB of memory.

With the expansion to 2GB, apps launch up to 20 percent faster, and with an additional 270 MB of additional free memory, people can now run three to four more apps in the background. Android (Go edition) on 2GB devices also comes with up to 900MB of additional free storage space—enough to take up to 300 more selfies and download an entire movie.

Learn more at android.com/go

There are more than 3.5 billion people who use smartphones, but that’s only 45 percent of the world’s population. We created Android (Go edition) to bring more affordable, high-quality smartphones to people around the world. Thanks to our partners who have made more than 1,600 device models available in 180+ countries, there are now more than 100 million active Android (Go edition) devices around the world. Here are some updates on Go edition’s progress and where we’re going next.

Powering universal access to information

In partnership with Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecom provider, we brought more than 900,000 Android (Go edition) smartphones to people in Kenya—53 percent of whom were women—through their “Life is Digital” campaign. This is especially important because there is a significant gender gap in mobile internet usage in Sub-Saharan Africa.

With the help of the suite of Google apps designed for Go edition, people are connecting with new   opportunities and making gains in their daily lives. For example, Google Go has helped connect millions of people to information by providing a lightweight search engine that works on unstable connections. And with Lens in Google Go, people can quickly translate, hear and search text they see in the real world using their phone camera—helping them understand words on street signs, medicine labels, documents, and more. 

Across the Google apps designed for Android (Go edition), we’ve introduced a number of user privacy features to protect the next billion people coming online for the first time. For example, a new mode within Google Go lets people search without their searches being saved to their account, and Gallery Go leverages on-device machine learning to help people organize photos without ever sending data to the cloud.

Bringing a beautiful, fast camera experience to affordable devices

Your phone’s camera gives you the power to capture memories that you’ll want to share with those around you. But on many smartphones, camera apps are often slow or complex to use, and your phone can quickly run out of storage.

The new Camera Go app from Google helps you take beautiful photos without worrying about speed or storage. It has features like Portrait Mode to give your photos a professional look by focusing on your subject. It’s built for people using smartphones for the first time, so it has a clean and simple interface. And, most importantly, Camera Go tracks how much photo and video storage space you have left, and then it helps you clear up space so you never miss a shot.

Camera Go will be available on Nokia 1.3 and more Android (Go edition) devices soon.

In many places in the world, entry-level smartphones are often the first and only way people get access to the internet. As we build Android for everyone, making sure that these devices are affordable and high quality is a top priority. That’s why we launched Android (Go edition) in 2018—a platform tailored for smartphones with 1.5GB of memory or less. As we release Android 10 (Go edition), here’s a look at how we’re making experiences for entry-level device owners better, across the platform and apps.

Android 10 (Go edition)

With Android 10 (Go edition), we’ve made Android faster and more secure. 

First, this new release helps you switch between apps faster and in a memory-efficient way. Speed and reliability are also enhanced—apps now launch 10 percent faster than they did on Android 9 (Go edition). 

Encryption underpins our digital security, as it protects your data even if your device falls into the wrong hands. That’s why Android 10 (Go edition) includes a new form of encryption, built by Google for entry-level smartphones, called Adiantum. Up until now, not all entry-level smartphones were able to encrypt data without affecting device performance. 

Adiantum is built to run efficiently without specialized hardware, meaning all Go edition users will have the same level of data security as any Android device, without compromising performance. This will make the next generation of devices more secure than their predecessors, and allow the next billion people coming online for the first time to do so safely.

Keep an eye out for the new phones with Android 10 (Go edition) launching later this fall.

New app experiences

Apps designed for Go edition phones are also improving to better serve the needs of first-time smartphone owners.

For example, we’ve introduced a number of updates to Google Go. With the AI-powered read-out-loud feature that makes consuming long-form text as easy as listening to the radio, people feel more comfortable using the web in their daily lives. Lens in Google Go helps people who struggle to read things in real life by reading out and translating the text that you point with your camera. Since the launch, people have told us that it helps them read and understand important things like bus schedules and bank forms.

YouTube Go, which helps people watch videos on low-speed connections, is also receiving positive responses. People tell us they encounter less buffering while streaming videos, and are now saving on their data consumption.

The new Gallery Go by Google Photos makes it easier to find photos on your entry-level phone. Just 10MB in size and powered by on-device machine learning, it automatically organizes your photos by the people and things you take photos of—and it works offline, too. 

Across the ecosystem, more Android developers are now enhancing their apps to work well on Android (Go edition) devices. In the past year, popular apps like Uber, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Spotify have been redesigned to be Go-ready. If you’re a developer, visit our developer site to learn how to build for the next billion.

Go for everyone

In the last 18 months, over 500 manufacturers have launched more than 1,600 Android (Go edition) device models to 180+ countries including India, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, and the United States. These devices, including the Samsung A2, Xiaomi Redmi Go, Tecno Spark 2, and Mobicel Astro, make up over 80 percent of entry-level Android phones activating today.

In some countries, devices are now available for as low as $27. Whether it comes with a high-definition or regular display, 4GB or 16GB of storage, or 3G or 4G support, there’s a Go edition device for everyone. 

With the new platform release and more app choices, Android (Go edition) brings a broader range of options and better performing phones to more people coming online for the first time. 

Since Android’s creation, our mission has been to bring the power of computing to everyone. As a global operating system, Android has grown to more than 2 billion active devices around the world, with more users in India than the U.S.

To make sure billions more people can get access to computing, it’s important that entry-level devices are fully functioning smartphones that can browse the web and use apps. At Google I/O this year, we gave an early look at a project we called “Android Go” to make this possible. We’re excited to announce that this software experience—Android Oreo (Go edition)—is ready, and launching as a part of the Android 8.1 release tomorrow.

Android Oreo devices with 512MB to 1GB of memory will come with the all the Go optimizations. This Android Oreo (Go edition) experience is made up of three key components:

• Operating System: Performance and storage improvements to the OS with data management features and security benefits built-in.

• Google Apps: A new set of Google apps, designed to be lighter and relevant to the unique needs of people who are coming online for the first time.

• Google Play Store: A tuned version of the Google Play Store that allows you to download any app, but also highlights the apps designed to work best on your device.

Go big with faster performance, more storage, data management, and security

We enhanced Android Oreo (Go edition) for speed and reliability on entry-level devices, which means the average app is now 15 percent faster on devices running Android Oreo (Go edition). There are many of these kinds of optimizations—and they really add up. If all entry level Android devices launched apps 15 percent faster, that would save the world a cumulative one million hours of time—every day!

It’s common for entry level devices to have very little storage space available once you account for the size of the OS and the preinstalled apps. This can be frustrating for people who want more space for their music, apps, and photos. So, we’ve optimized Android Oreo (Go edition) and enhanced our preinstalled Google apps to take up 50 percent less space. The net result is that we’ve doubled the amount of available storage on entry-level devices.

Devices running Android Oreo (Go edition) also come with Google’s data saver features turned on by default. For example, Data Saver in Chrome saves the average user more than 600MB of data per year. You can also manage which apps can use background data with our built-in data saver feature, giving you more control over how your data is used.

Android Oreo is the most secure version of Android yet, so when you buy an Android Oreo (Go edition) device, you’ll be getting all the same security features. And of course all devices with Android Oreo (Go edition) get Google Play Protect built-in. Google Play Protect continuously works to keep your device, data and apps safe. It scans your app installs, even when you’re offline, no matter where you downloaded them from.

Go with Google

We’ve redesigned many of our popular Google apps to address local needs. Preinstalled on Android Oreo (Go edition) devices, this set of optimized apps includes Google Go, Google Assistant Go, YouTube Go, Google Maps Go, Gmail Go, Gboard, Google Play, Chrome, and the new Files Go app by Google.

With our new and reimagined Google apps, we’ve focused on making them not only smaller, but smooth and fast too. For example, Google Go—a new app to find the information you want—optimizes data by up to 40 percent, weighs less than 5MB in size, and makes it faster to find popular and trending information with a simple, tappable interface. And with the Google Assistant for Android (Go edition), you can quickly send messages, make calls, set alarms, and more with your voice and a single touch of the screen.

Our storage-saving features extend beyond the OS to a new file-management app by Google—Files Go—which helps you clean up space and stay organized. Whether it’s recommendations for removing spam, duplicate images or unused apps from your phone, Files Go is the perfect complement to the storage-maximizing features of Android Oreo (Go edition).

Ready. Set. Go.

With the launch of Android Oreo (Go edition) in Android 8.1, partners will soon be able to ship this new release on their entry-level devices around the world. We can’t wait for our partners’ devices to hit shelves in the coming months.

And if you’re a developer, let’s build for the next billion together.

Since Android’s creation, our mission has been to bring the power of computing to everyone. As a global operating system, Android has grown to more than 2 billion active devices around the world, with more users in India than the U.S.

To make sure billions more people can get access to computing, it’s important that entry-level devices are fully functioning smartphones that can browse the web and use apps. At Google I/O this year, we gave an early look at a project we called “Android Go” to make this possible. We’re excited to announce that this software experience—Android Oreo (Go edition)—is ready, and launching as a part of the Android 8.1 release tomorrow.

Android Oreo devices with 512MB to 1GB of memory will come with the all the Go optimizations. This Android Oreo (Go edition) experience is made up of three key components:

• Operating System: Performance and storage improvements to the OS with data management features and security benefits built-in.

• Google Apps: A new set of Google apps, designed to be lighter and relevant to the unique needs of people who are coming online for the first time.

• Google Play Store: A tuned version of the Google Play Store that allows you to download any app, but also highlights the apps designed to work best on your device.

Go big with faster performance, more storage, data management, and security

We enhanced Android Oreo (Go edition) for speed and reliability on entry-level devices, which means the average app is now 15 percent faster on devices running Android Oreo (Go edition). There are many of these kinds of optimizations—and they really add up. If all entry level Android devices launched apps 15 percent faster, that would save the world a cumulative one million hours of time—every day!

It’s common for entry level devices to have very little storage space available once you account for the size of the OS and the preinstalled apps. This can be frustrating for people who want more space for their music, apps, and photos. So, we’ve optimized Android Oreo (Go edition) and enhanced our preinstalled Google apps to take up 50 percent less space. The net result is that we’ve doubled the amount of available storage on entry-level devices.

Devices running Android Oreo (Go edition) also come with Google’s data saver features turned on by default. For example, Data Saver in Chrome saves the average user more than 600MB of data per year. You can also manage which apps can use background data with our built-in data saver feature, giving you more control over how your data is used.

Android Oreo is the most secure version of Android yet, so when you buy an Android Oreo (Go edition) device, you’ll be getting all the same security features. And of course all devices with Android Oreo (Go edition) get Google Play Protect built-in. Google Play Protect continuously works to keep your device, data and apps safe. It scans your app installs, even when you’re offline, no matter where you downloaded them from.

Go with Google

We’ve redesigned many of our popular Google apps to address local needs. Preinstalled on Android Oreo (Go edition) devices, this set of optimized apps includes Google Go, Google Assistant Go, YouTube Go, Google Maps Go, Gmail Go, Gboard, Google Play, Chrome, and the new Files Go app by Google.

With our new and reimagined Google apps, we’ve focused on making them not only smaller, but smooth and fast too. For example, Google Go—a new app to find the information you want—optimizes data by up to 40 percent, weighs less than 5MB in size, and makes it faster to find popular and trending information with a simple, tappable interface. And with the Google Assistant for Android (Go edition), you can quickly send messages, make calls, set alarms, and more with your voice and a single touch of the screen.

Our storage-saving features extend beyond the OS to a new file-management app by Google—Files Go—which helps you clean up space and stay organized. Whether it’s recommendations for removing spam, duplicate images or unused apps from your phone, Files Go is the perfect complement to the storage-maximizing features of Android Oreo (Go edition).

Ready. Set. Go.

With the launch of Android Oreo (Go edition) in Android 8.1, partners will soon be able to ship this new release on their entry-level devices around the world. We can’t wait for our partners’ devices to hit shelves in the coming months.

And if you’re a developer, let’s build for the next billion together.