Google showed off and talked about Android 13 (Go edition) today. It has a number of important updates to the user interface and technical features under “reliability, usability, and customization”.
Also, the company said that starting with this version, Go devices can use Google Play System Updates. This means that phones can get important software updates even when there isn’t a major Android release. To recall, the Android 13 stable update is already available for Pixel phones.
Direct software updates
Android 13 (Go edition) offers Google Play System Updates to Go devices, ensuring they receive crucial software updates outside of major Android releases. This will streamline crucial updates without affecting device storage. The result is a phone that stays current without waiting for a new release or software update from the manufacturer.
Discover feature
Discover personalized content with Android (Go edition). This edition adds Discover, which lets you swipe right from your home screen to see hand-picked articles and other content.
Material You to Android Go
This update brings ‘Material You’ to Android Go for the first time, letting you match your phone’s colour palette to your wallpaper. Four colour schemes appear when you set your background. Dynamic coloring makes an attractive home screen and makes your phone seem distinctive.
More features
This update includes several important Android 13 features, such as Notification Permissions, App Language Preferences, and others, along with the extra features made just for Go users.
Availability
With this update, Google says it wants to give Android Go device owners—who number in the millions today and in the future—more options. New devices with Android 13 (Go edition) will arrive in 2023.
Speaking on the announcement, Charmaine D’Silva, Director, Product Management, Android, said,
When we introduced Android (Go edition) five years ago, we tailored our core mobile platform to power affordable phones with limited memory and storage. This need is just as pertinent today, with nearly 180 million people coming online in the last twelve months alone.
As we announce the release of Android 13 (Go edition), we’re marking a milestone, too: there are now over 250 million monthly active devices powered by Android Go. To better serve this growing set of users, we focused on three critical qualities: reliability, usability and customization.