Google has officially started bringing the final Android 8.1 update for its Pixel and Nexus smartphones. At the Google for India event, Android Oreo (Go version) as well as stable Oreo updates were announced. The latest source code for Android 8.1 Orio is being pushed into the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and the update has started rolling out for supported Pixel and Nexus devices. Google says it is working with device makers to bring Android 8.1 to more devices, including Android Orio (Go version) devices, in the coming months.

Android 8.1 Orio Update introduces Neural Network APIO. This is a hardware accelerated machine learning runtime that supports ML capabilities in the app. Google says, “On supported devices, the Neural Network API enables quick and efficient predictions for a variety of basic uses, ranging from vision-based object classification.” The update enables Google Pixel’s Visual Core, the company’s custom-designed image processor with machine learning.

Android Oreo (Go version) is specially optimized to run on phones with 512MB to 1GB of RAM. It is not a thorn in the side of Android and can be enabled by OEMs by ticking off the configuration flag in Oreo version 8.1. Google promises to update every Android version as well as the Go version, such as Android P (Go version), Android Q (Go version) and many more.

Android Orio (Go version) will use the “Go” version of Google Apps, such as YouTube Go, Files Go, Assistant Go, Gmail, Google Maps and more. These apps are specially designed for India and similar data-conscious markets and are light versions of their original apps. There is also a different version of the Play Store for Android Orio (Go version) devices. This will highlight all “Go” apps, especially for Android Go and similar devices with less powerful hardware.