Fuchsia is a little different from Android and Chrome OS in that it’s not based on Linux. Instead, it’s based on a new Google-developed kernel called Magenta. According to Google, Magenta is aimed at “modern phones and modern personal computers,” so it wouldn’t be surprising to one day see Fuchsia appear on our smartphones. Not only that, but Google has even added Apple’s programming language, Swift, to the operating system — though we don’t know why just yet.
Because Fuchsia is written using the Flutter SDK, which runs on Android, chunks of Fuchsia can be run on an Android device. This version of Fuchsia appears to be called Armadillo, and it completely reimagines the home screen. The screen, according to testing by Ars Technica, is basically presented as a big scrolling list, with a profile picture, the date, your city, and a battery icon all placed at the center. Above that, you’ll find “Story” cards, or a list of recent apps. Below, you’ll see a list of suggestions for you, which acts kind of like Google Now.
Fuchsia could eventually replace Android, but it's years away from doing so
Android and Chrome OS may be Google’s best-known software ventures, but the company is actually working on a third operating system. It’s called Fuchsia, and when it was first discovered last year, it only popped up as a single command line. Now, however, we know a lot more about the operating system.
WHAT IS FUCHSIA EXACTLY FOR?
The fact is that we just don’t know what Fuchsia is being built for just yet. The latest report from Bloomberg posits that Fuchsia is a new attempt to unite the entire Google ecosphere under a single operating system, with the goal for Fuchsia being to run smartphones, smart speakers, laptops — anything that could possibly fit under Google’s tech umbrella. According to a certain source, the plan is to have Fuchsia up and running on smart speakers and other smart home devices within the next three years, and then move on to larger devices like laptops, before eventually superseding Android as the world’s largest mobile OS.
Fuchsia looks totally different than any other mobile operating system we’ve seen, including Android, but that could be the point. The fact is that there’s currently a ton of mystery surrounding the operating system. We don’t know what it’s for, if it’s aimed at eventually replacing Android, if it’s just an experiment by Google, or if we should expect to see the new OS at Google I/O this year.
You can also drag recent apps around and drop them where you choose to organize and personalize the home screen. If you drop one app on top of another, you’ll enter a split-screen mode with up to three apps.
According to Hacker News, Travis Geiselbrech, who worked on NewOS, BeOS, Danger, Palm’s WebOS, and iOS, and Brian Swetland, who also worked on BeOS and Android, are involved in this project.
The idea that Fuchsia would replace Android is one that’s been around for a while, and Ars Technica has an interesting take on this. As it notes, Android was built long before the iPhone was released, and was originally intended as an operating system for digital cameras. After the launch of the iPhone, Android was repurposed for phones, but Google is still stuck to commitments it made with Android many years ago. The company faces a lot of challenges with Android — for example, it struggles to get updates rolled out across the entire ecosystem of devices — and it’s possible that Fuchsia would help to solve some of these issues.
However, it’s likely that abandoning Android is a long way off yet — if it happens at all. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and deputy Hiroshi Lockheimer have yet to sign off on any sort of future plan for Fuchsia, and it’s clear that such a change would be an enormous undertaking. Many huge manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, and LG depend on Android for their phones, making this sort of undertaking exceptionally difficult. However, if Google managed to switch to Fuchsia, the move could be huge for the smartphone world. The Flutter SDK used to code Fuchsia has been able to produce code for Android and iOS apps, so developers could build apps in Flutter to work across all smartphone operating systems.
Fuchsia would also have a more robust set of security features than Android, with encrypted user keys being built into the software to tighten security. Fuchsia would also be better than Android at adapting to various different sizes of screen, building toward an interlinked smart future in which Fuchsia powers everything from your doorbell to your toaster. By moving towards Fuchsia, Google can also ditch Java and the issues it’s had surrounding the legal use of Java. It would also mean that Google could ditch the Linux kernel at the center of Android.
Chances are we won’t find out anything new for a while since Fuchsia OS is early in development. Google has tested the new OS on phones, and we know that it’s now also testing it on the Pixelbook too and other laptops too. We’ll update this article as we hear more.
What advantages could moving to Fuchsia have for Google? Many, as it turns out. As we’ve already mentioned, Android was originally built to power digital cameras, before being adapted into an OS for touchscreen phones. As a result, much of Android doesn’t fit into the future Google sees for smart devices, with voice interaction being particularly important. Fuchsia would solve many of those issues while opening up more opportunities for Google as a result.
Of course, Fuchsia is still deep in early development, and don’t be surprised if some of these details change over time. According to Bloomberg’s report, there have already been conflicts within Google over Fuchsia’s security measures, as they would make it harder for Google advertising
