Android 11 just launched this week for Pixel devices and phones from OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme, and now Google has detailed its counterpart designed for low-powered devices: Android 11 (Go edition).
One of the biggest new features is that Android 11 (Go edition) is supposed to work on devices with 2GB of RAM or less — a bump up from Android 10 (Go edition), which was made for devices with less than 1.5GB of RAM. But don’t necessarily expect to upgrade your existing 2GB phone: Android 11 Go is only going to come out with new phones with that much memory, not earlier ones, Google tells The Verge.
Also, Google says it’s up to OEMs whether they want to put Android 11 Go on a device instead of Android 10 Go, contradicting what was suggested in a document obtained by XDA Developers back in July. Google wouldn’t provide any examples of devices that can get the update.
But if you do happen to have a phone that can upgrade to Android 11 (Go edition) right now, you can try out new features like grouped notifications from chat apps in your notifications, like Android 11, and granting apps one-time permissions for things such as your microphone or camera. Apps will also launch 20 percent faster than they did on Android 10 (Go edition), according to Google. And Android 11 (Go edition) adds a gesture-based navigation system you can use to swipe around the phone’s UI.
Update, 6:18 PM ET: Added clarification from Google about what kinds of devices are eligible for Android 11 (Go edition), though we still don’t have any examples of specific phones.