Google may be readying Android for touchless devices

You will hardly notice anyone carrying a touchless keypad phone nowadays, it’s equivalent of seeing a touchscreen phone 15 or 20 years back. It’s rare if not nonexistent. But, if we take a broader view and take a look at the market share, KaiOS, an O.S. made for non-touch phones holds roughly 0.9 percent mobile O.S. market share, which by the way is more than the current market share of Windows Phone. If you do the math that 0.9 percent would translate to a lot of users.

KaiOS might no longer be alone in the game. It is about to face fierce competition from none other than Google as the company is now looking to mimic the Android success on touchless smartphones.

Folks at 9to5Google found a new commit on Chromium Gerrit source code which suggests that Google is readying a Chrome browser for keypad smartphone. The code shows that it can take input from physical keys. You can take a look at the leaked screenshot below.

As you can see from the images, the Chrome browsers on your smartphone look a lot similar to the ones you are seeing above. A couple of leaked screenshot of Chrome running on a touchless phone, however, isn’t solid proof of the company planning to bring Android on touchless feature phones. But, there is a lot hidden in the two images.

Take a closer look at those images and you’ll notice Android Oreo’s system icon in the top left corner of the status bar, a clear hint that  Android for touchless phones is in the works. That said, it’s still too early to say anything.

Do you really want Google to make Android for touchless phones? If you do then what according to you might be the motive besides user factor.

Via: XDA