Google website updates reveal Fuchsia OS coming to Android devices soon

In 2016, we heard that Google was working on an operating system called Fuchsia, but it didn’t first appear on a commercial device, the first-generation Nest Hub, until 2021. There was speculation that Fuchsia would be a universal operating system that would run on all smart devices, including phones and watches, but that hasn’t happened yet. And while Fuchsia may not replace Android anytime soon, it could run as a virtual machine on Android devices, a new report suggests. Fuchsia is an open-source operating system, but unlike Android and ChromeOS, it’s not based on a modified version of the Linux kernel. Instead, it’s been built from the ground up on a new microkernel called Zircon. Unlike a conventional operating system kernel, the microkernel offers improved performance and flexibility. The Zircon architecture also allows Fuchsia to limit the amount of trusted code running on the system, which improves security and stability. Google is reportedly working on a new project called “microfuchsia” that should allow Fuchsia to run on existing devices via virtualization. Virtualization creates a virtual version of the device that runs in a separate computing environment, primarily for the purpose of running another operating system. The virtual machine is separate from the rest of the system, so programs running on the main operating system and inside the virtual machine can’t interfere with each other.

According to Fuchsia Gerrit, microfuchsia will run on virtualization programs like QEMU and pKVM. pKVM was developed by Google with a layered approach to security to safely run workloads in an isolated environment. The company even developed a heavily stripped-down version of Android called “microdroid” to run these workloads.

It is possible that microfuchsia will function in a similar way to microdroid. In simpler terms, it could be used to perform tasks that must be performed safely.

It is unknown why Google wants to create a microfuchsia since the microdroid serves the same purpose, but it may be because Fuchsia is considered more secure and efficient.