Fuchsia OS may have onboarded new developers
Google has been working on the Fuchsia project since at least 2016. The new OS has steadily progressed into powering the company’s Nest smart displays. The first-gen Next Hub and the Nest Hub Max have been updated to Fuchsia OS in recent years, replacing the Cast OS that they initially shipped with. Google now appears to be readying the platform for its smart speakers. The 2020 Nest Audio could get an update soon, while upcoming models might run Fuchsia out of the box. But Google’s plan for the new platform is likely a lot bigger. It may not keep Fuchsia limited to smart displays and speakers. From what we have seen so far, the company may be developing it with plans to run on smartphones, tablets, and everything else. The original Google Pixelbook was added as a target device for Fuchsia back in 2017. Google is already working on a way to natively run Android and Linux apps within Fuchsia. This work is in development under the “Starnix” project. Starnix will remove a major roadblock to Fuchsia’s adoption. It will ensure that your favorite Android and Linux apps run smoothly on phones powered by Fuchsia. Otherwise, people would avoid buying those devices. And with fewer users, major developers wouldn’t want to port their apps to the new platform. Samsung ran into a similar situation with its Tizen OS-powered smartphones. It shelved the project after releasing just four entry-level models. The Korean firm has also switched to Google’s Wear OS for its smartwatches. Google originally planned to run Android and Linux apps in a virtual machine on Fuchsia. This is how Chrome OS and Google Play Games for PC bring support for Android apps. But this approach has some drawbacks. It affects the app’s performance. Google is fixing that with Starnix. However, the company ultimately wants developers to build native Fuchsia apps rather than rely on Android and Linux apps. And the work on that seems to have begun with the “SDK Bootcamp” event last month. The Visual Studio Code plugin for Fuchsia has already seen nearly 500 downloads.
The new platform could see a big release this year
Recent developments suggest that Fuchsia OS may get a big release this year, or at least next year. Maybe something like Android’s debut at Google I/O 2008. However, Google has so far billed Fuchsia as a “testbed for experiments” rather than an alternative for Android or Chrome OS. “Fuchsia isn’t necessarily targeting end users or application developers. Fuchsia exists to make products easier to build and maintain. Products are responsible for the app developer and end-user experience,” a member of the Fuchsia team explained the platform earlier this year (via). Time will tell what the future holds for Google’s new operating system. We will keep you posted.
