Reliance announces Jio Phone Next with Google’s ‘light’ Android OS

Reliance Industries Limited chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani at the 44th Annual General Meeting announced a new affordable smartphone called Jio Phone Next. Reliance has partnered with Google for this affordable smartphone aimed at helping 2G feature phone users to upgrade to a 4G-enabled Android smartphone. The Jio Phone Next uses a stripped down version of Android that has been optimised for low-end hardware.

The Jio Phone Next will be launched on September 10, 2021 and the phone will offer camera, voice assistant, language translation and more.

Reliance has already talked about launching an Android smartphone in partnership with Google last year as part of the company’s mission to make India “2G mukt” (free of slow 2G networks).