Nokia's Android feature phone that never launched leaked in video, teases future of low-cost Android

HMD cancelled the Nokia 400 for unknown reasons but GAFP would have been something worth looking forward to.

Google’s Android operating system is already available on a smartphone for as cheap as you can get, but the company wanted to reach feature phones. Back in 2019, Google Android for Feature Phones (GAFP) emerged for the first time, leading to all kinds of speculation around the next-generation feature phones. HMD Global, the caretaker of Nokia phones, was at the forefront of that experiment, and a hands-on video of the Nokia 400 feature phone cropped up later in 2019 reaffirmed the company’s commitment. But HMD finally cancelled this phone and GAFP probably ended up becoming Google’s pipedream. That phone has once again leaked in a hands-on video and it shows the future of low-cost Android OS. Calyx Hikari has posted the hands-on video of this now-cancelled Nokia 400 on YouTube, and it shows that Google was planning to shake up the feature phone market with GAFP. The model number of the Nokia 400, TA-1208, is the same as the one previous leaks pointed at earlier, so it is safe to assume this was Google’s first GAFP-powered phone. The video does not mean HMD is second-guessing its decision to cancel the phone. It rather shows that GAFP, if launched, could have potentially bridged the gap between a feature phone and a low-end smartphone. Google never said anything officially about GAFP getting shelved because HMD decided to abandon its plans.