Android Go, Assistant on JioPhone and more: Google's new features
Google hosted its third annual 'Google for India' event in Delhi today and announced a slew of exciting offerings. Among the most remarkable were the launch of Android Oreo (Go Edition), a lightweight version for smaller devices, and the feature phone debut of Google Assistant. It also announced a two-wheeler mode for Google Maps and new features on Tez. Find all updates here.
The highlight of the event was the Android Oreo (Go Edition), specially designed for devices with less than 1GB RAM. On this setting, the phone will use the "Go" version of some Google apps, including the main Google app, YouTube, Assistant and Gmail, apart from "performance and storage improvements". For now, it will be available only to developers and manufacturers.
Though even Android One is designed for low-end devices, for this, Google partners with manufacturers to decide what goes on to a phone and keep it updated. However, Android Go is available freely on the Android Open Source Project; any manufacturer can use it.
Google announced it is partnering with Jio to launch the Google Assistant on the JioPhone, the first time it's being integrated in a feature phone. Users will be able to activate Assistant by pressing the mic button in the centre. They can send messages, play music and more through commands in both English and Hindi. This will increase the scope of Jio's own assistant.
Among other firsts was the launch of a new two-wheeler mode for Google Maps apart from the earlier car, foot and train modes (India is the first country to receive this feature). Tez, which will cross 12mn users in the next days, now has a bill payment feature supporting 70 service providers like Tata Power, Airtel, DishTV, DoCoMo and more.
