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Google Maps Go passes 500 million Play Store installs
It's a good indicator of Android Go sales figures
Android Go is designed for phones with limited resources and comes with a variety of apps, including Maps Go. The latter offers limited functionality compared to the main version, but doesn't require a lot of resources to run. The fact that it just passed 500 million downloads on the Play Store is a good indication of the platform's success.
Google Go passes 500 million downloads on the Play Store
It's a good indicator of Android Go's success
Back in November 2019, we reported Google Go passed 100 million downloads on the Play Store. That success was fueled both by the fact that the app is pre-installed on Android Go devices but also thanks to its data-saving approach, which helps millions of users around the world limit their data consumption. The app just passed 500 million installations on the Play Store, which confirms its global success.
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- Another Go app has hit the 100 million install mark: Google Maps Go. It too can be installed on non-Go phones, but it's very limited in functionality compared to the main Maps app as it doesn't provide any navigation (which comes from a separate app). The odds of people using it instead of the main Maps app may thus be lower, which further corroborates the claim that Android Go phones have probably seen some decent sales.
We've only reported Google Go's 10 million download numbers last September, and today, the app has reached another milestone: it now boasts 100 million installs on the Play Store. Since it's pre-installed on all Android Go phones, this might indicate that Android Go is quite a successful endeavor for Google, as this would suggest that the amount of newly activated Go devices skyrocketed over the past half year.
The tech sector loves to talk about how the next billion smartphone users will come online. Google has backed one option, the feature phone-based KaiOS, as well as putting work into a modified version of its platform, Android Go edition. The company has been able to claim success with Go as over 80% of entry-level Android phone purchases in the last 18 months. Now, Google has given Android 10 its own Go edition, hoping to capitalize on recent performance improvements, feature additions, and size savings to its apps.
Just last month, Google Go passed 100 million installs on the Play Store. Given how widespread the app is being used, you'd have assumed it was available everywhere, but that wasn't the case. Previously it was limited to certain countries and Android Go edition phones. But starting today, it's available everywhere.
Easter eggs used to be a lot more frequent back when Google let its fun side show, but now that the company is trying to project a more serious image, these little undiscovered gems are becoming rarer and rarer. Or maybe we're not playful enough to discover them. However, I'm ready to scratch all of what I said and do nothing for the next hour except trigger this elephant easter egg in Google Go. It's that adorable.
Statistics for Android Go-related sales haven't been revealed, so it's tough to say how many of the phones have been sold. That makes it hard to tell if things are generally going well for the Android Go effort or not. But, a related milestone was just reached that could shed a bit of light on the upper-bounds of the project's success. Yesterday Google Go, an app which ships on Android Go-powered phones, hit 10 million installs on the Play Store.
Google has a massive user base in India, but, until recently, there's been a dearth of Google products that support Indian languages. At this year's Google for India event, the company announced that it is taking strides to correct that.
At Google's event in New Delhi, the company announced that it was launching website dictation for Google Go. We first heard about this during the Nigeria event a month ago, where the feature was said to arrive "in the coming weeks." Looks like we've hit that ever-so-helpful marker.
If you feel like you're pretty comfortable with the navigation in the Google app, you'll be sad to learn that a shake-up might be on its way. Google introduced bottom tabs last year, settling on five options: Home, Upcoming, Search, Recent, and a hamburger menu leading to more. The latest UI being tested replaces Recent with a new Top Apps section that looks like it's been borrowed from the Google Go app.
Google's Go line of apps is gradually getting larger, with one of the more recent ones being Google Go, a lite version of the main Google app. The 'Google for Nigeria' event yesterday saw the announcement of webpage dictation, which is said to be arriving "in the coming weeks," for Google Go.
Google is spinning up the previously announced "Go" version of Android, including a suite of apps in the Play Store. This optimized build of the OS was announced back at Google I/O, and a few test apps have popped up in the intervening months. Today, Google has renamed Search Lite to Google Go. That matches Files Go, which is out of beta now.