Google announced its lightweight search app for phones with limited RAM and users with limited access to wireless internet or mobile data, as many other Go apps launched earlier, including:

YouTube Go, Gallery Go, Google Assistant Go, Google Maps Go, Files Go, and Gmail Go to name a few.

This version is designed specifically for Android Go phones. These types of smartphones have higher demand in developing markets where users’ buying power is relatively low as compared to Western markets. Keeping these facts in mind, Google first launched its Google Go app in 2017 in only a few selected countries where users face internet connection issues and spending on expensive smartphones with better specs is a luxury few can afford.

Fast forward to 2019, Google Go is available for everyone. No matter which phone or which country, now everyone can use a lighter version of Google search. Because no matter how developed our cities may be, we all face the misery of spotty connections once in a while. And it can also be helpful if you go out hiking or exploring into areas with bad service.

Besides being light on your mobile storage, what other features is Google Go offering?

What Makes Google Go Different?

Here are a couple of cool features you get with Google Go:

• It has a lens feature to help it recognize and read texts. Like road signs, bus or train schedules, billboards or any other resourceful information. Just point your camera to the text you want app lens to recognize and it will read and translate it to you
• AI feature which allows you to listen to extra lengthy blocks of text instead of reading them
• Google Go also highlights informative text on a page so readers can avoid ads within text or anything irrelevant to their search
• The “tap first” feature. This means that a user doesn’t have to type much. Tapping on the search bar suggests all the trending topics
• Date usage feature. When enabled, data usage loads a lighter version of a webpage

Google Go is designed to target users who are not very familiar with the web yet and assists them to surf the web more efficiently and faster.

Even though the lens feature addition was only 100KB but the recent updates have increased the total storage size of the app from 5MB to 7MB. Which is still a very low storage space as compared to Google’s full-size version. The flagship Google App consumes 330MB in three hours’ span on average, while the Google Go version only consumes 32MB. The lighter version of the app consumes forty percent less data and works impressively even on connections as slow as 2G. The app is supported by any android phone running on Lollipop 5.0 version or higher.

To make it appealing to first time users, Google also made the overall user interface sleek and clean with circular icons and default icon set including other Go app services of Google. But if you don’t want to use other Go services like Gallery Go, Gmail Go, Maps Go and so on then the app also gives easier access to some of the most popular social media sites on the internet like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As the user gets the hang of the things, they can also customize their experience with the app. Adding customized icons or app background.

Google App comes with a support of 28 languages and also allows users to share images, and GIFs with a couple of taps. There are useful sites like YouTube, Weather, News, and Maps right at the homepage of Google Go, so the first time users have access to the right apps with just a single touch.

Google Go received positive reviews with its first round of beta testing and its success is only estimated to grow further in the future. Just like all other ‘lite’ versions of mobile apps, Google Go is easy on your phone’s storage but it also offers some great features at such a decreased size. Google Go has its major market in India with a 48% user rate. It’s next potential markets are Indonesia, Brazil, and Nigeria with 16%, 14%, and 6% consumer rate, respectively.

Android Go

To assure the success of its Go services, Google has invested in Android Go phones. The demand for cheap yet updated phones is increasing in developing countries and the new generation of Android Go phones offer smartphones at affordable prices. This will increase the number of users of Google’s services and apps. The first batch of Android Go phones announced at the MWC 2018 included Alcatel 1X and Nokia 1. Since then several Android Go devices have been introduced by big companies like Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola.