Android 11: Google plans to make Android Go Edition for cheap smartphones

in terms of performance, Google is using Android 11 to tighten the thumbscrews. And at the same time ensuring that buyers of affordable entry-level smartphones no longer have a “normal” Android user experience in the future.

According to the Source, based on information from a Google document, the Internet company is changing the specifications for the configuration of devices with a smaller version of the Android Go operating system. With the advent of Android 11, virtually all “normal” Android smartphones must have at least three gigabytes of RAM.

|Everything with two or fewer gigabytes of RAM must use Android Go

Changes to the Android 11 Go Edition Device Configuration Guide, which appears to be available to devise makers since late April, stipulate that all devices with two gigabytes of RAM or less must always have Android Go. This means that smartphone models that currently still have normal Android 10 and only have two gigabytes of RAM will be downgraded to Go models in the future.

It is not planned to downgrade the rating of devices that are already on the market and appeared with Android 10 in the regular version. From the fourth quarter of 2020, this requirement applies to new devices that hit the market with Android 10 and do not yet have Android 11 on board.

Google also guarantees that devices with especially low RAM, i.e. devices with 512 megabytes of RAM, will no longer receive official support from Google Mobile Services (GMS). Therefore, the Google Play Store and related Google apps will no longer be available on these ultra-low performance smartphones in the future. The devices that are already available will continue to work in the future. But the change will also mean that such products will soon simply disappear from the market.

Due to the progressive development of hardware with the introduction of new requirements for Android smartphones, the price is likely to change little for end users. As memory prices continue to fall, many manufacturers should be able to offer devices with enough RAM at slightly higher prices. So that they will also exceed the 2GB RAM limit in the future.