A month after becoming available as a developer preview, Android 8.1 Oreo 8.1 has reached its final release. In addition to what InfoQ already reported, with Oreo 8.1 comes the new Android Oreo (Go edition) configuration that is specifically targeting low-memory devices.
Originally announced at Google I/O 2017, Android Go aims to optimize Android on entry-level devices, which usually have 1GB or less RAM. This is accomplished through a number of means:
- Memory optimization across the whole platform.
- Optimized Google apps which use less memory, storage, and bandwidth.
- New Google Play features, such as
FEATURE_RAM_LOW, to better target apps to low-level devices. In addition, Google Play will highlight Go edition apps on entry-level devices, while still allowing any app to be installed.
As InfoQ already reported, Android 8.1 Oreo's most significant new feature is the Neural Networks API (NNAPI), which provides support for hardware acceleration for machine learning tasks, such as model creation, compilation,and execution. The new NNAPI is meant to be used by ML frameworks such as TensorFlow Lite and others. For more details about what is new in Android 8.1 Oreo, do not miss our previous coverage.
Android Oreo 8.1 will start rolling out to supported Pixel and Nexus devices next week, while other device makers could make the new version available on their phones in the next months. Android 8.1 source code has been already pushed.