Google introduced Android 13 (Go edition), an edition of the Android 13 platform, designed for installation on low-power smartphones with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of permanent memory (for comparison, Android 12 Go required 1 GB of RAM, and Android 10 Go - 512 MB of RAM). Android Go combines optimized Android system components with a stripped-down set of Google Apps tailored to reduce memory consumption, persistent storage space, and traffic. According to Google statistics, in recent months there have been about 250 million active devices running Android Go.
Android Go includes special shortened versions of the YouTube Go video viewer, Chrome browser, Files Go file manager, and Gboard on-screen keyboard. The platform also implements means to save traffic, for example, in Chrome, data transfer of background tabs is limited and optimizations are enabled to reduce traffic consumption. With a smaller set of apps and more compact programs, Android Go has roughly halved its persistent storage usage and greatly reduced the size of downloaded updates. The Google Play catalog for low-power devices primarily offers applications specifically designed for devices with low RAM.
When preparing the new version, the main attention was paid to reliability, usability and the ability to customize to your preferences. Android Go-specific changes include:
- Added support for installing updates from the Google Play catalog to keep the system up to date. Previously, the means to install system updates was limited due to the rather high requirements for free space in the storage required to deploy the update. Now, critical fixes can be delivered to users quickly, without waiting for a new platform release or new firmware from the manufacturer.
- The Discover application is included, providing recommendations with lists of articles and content selected based on user preferences. The app is activated by swiping the home screen to the right.
- The UI has been redesigned and redesigned in line with the "Material You" design concept, touted as the next generation of Material Design. The possibility of arbitrary change of the color scheme and dynamic adaptation of the color scheme to the color scheme of the background image is provided.
- Work has been done to reduce the memory consumption of apps in the Google Apps Suite, reduce startup time, reduce the size of apps, and provide tools to optimize your apps. Optimization techniques used include:
- Reducing memory consumption by more actively returning unused memory to the system, using mmap instead of malloc, balanced execution of memory-intensive processes at the task scheduler level, eliminating memory leaks and improving the efficiency of working with bitmaps.
- Reducing the startup time of programs by eliminating initialization in the early stages, moving tasks from the thread with the interface to the background thread, minimizing synchronous IPC calls in the thread with the interface, eliminating unnecessary parsing of XML and JSON, getting rid of unnecessary disk and network operations .
- Reducing the size of programs by removing unnecessary interface layouts, switching to adaptive interface generation methods, removing resource-intensive functionality (animation, large GIF files, etc.), combining binary files with highlighting common dependencies, eliminating unused code, reducing string data ( removing internal lines, URLs and other extra lines from translation files), cleaning up alternative resources and using the Android App Bundle format.
Source: opennet.ru