Android Go and Android One each had a comparable goal. Android Go was always about very, very cheap smartphones that should also be attractive in emerging countries. Google has streamlined some of its apps to make them less memory-hungry on the one hand, but also to make them run better on devices with little system performance.
Gallery app gets a new name
But it is now the case that you can also build very cheap phones with the regular Android variant. And besides, the basic performance of cheap devices today has a different level. At some point, Google renamed its own file manager from Files Go to Files. The same thing happened with the gallery app, which also has to give up the Go branding.
Just a few months ago, Google announced the end of YouTube Go because the regular app is now optimized well enough. It works well on all Android phones. With the latest version, the Gallery app has no Go addition in the name. Google has adapted the app’s logo and of course various screenshots in the Google Play Store.
Either Android Go is finished or Google is pursuing a new app strategy
There was no official explanation for this change. The end of Android Go is therefore only speculative. It is also conceivable that Google wants to “market” these apps more broadly and therefore remove the Go addition. The Gallery app can be said to be a simpler and less Google-bound alternative to Google Photos.
It is quite conceivable that all apps that do not exist twice, such as Google Maps (Go) or Google Search (Go), will have the addition removed for the reasons just mentioned and will therefore be positioned more broadly. We’ll wait and see for now.
About the title: Google stopped supporting Android One a while ago and all manufacturers have also dropped out. The project has since been forgotten and dead. Android Go could flourish too.