Android is currently the world's most popular mobile operating system, with Apple trailing close behind in second place. Lots have changed since the first iPhone was released, and while history has been very kind to both platforms, who knew Android would be this massive?
A lot of factors contributed to Android's success, the most significant of which being the fact that it is very adaptable and can run on phones of any category. This is why Android is the dominating OS in developing countries — places where iPhones are out of reach for most people.
Despite its steel grip in the smartphone market, Google knows it's due for a follow-up. Something will eventually replace and innovate Android entirely, and that could be Fuchsia OS, a project that's been shrouded in mystery for the past few years, discovered only when the company began posting code to its GitHub repository under the table. There's been little to no report about this project's development.
Until now, that is.
Fuchsia Set To Replace Android And Chrome OS?
According to a report by Bloomberg, Google hopes to make Fuchsia a single, unified operating system that can run on any hardware or on any Google hardware at least. If true, that sounds like Fuchsia will replace Android and Chrome OS altogether. It's ambitious enough as it is, but even more so considering that Google apparently wants to achieve this in just three years from now. In 2021, it'll allegedly release a Fuchsia-powered connected device before moving on to more mainstream hardware like smartphones and laptops.
The idea of a unified OS gives Google a chance to solve one of the biggest problems associated with Android: fragmentation, a phenomenon that occurs when there's too huge a divide between users who have varying versions of the same software. Security is also said to be one of the core priorities of Fuchsia, which could help Google better compete with Apple's more tightly locked down iOS, as The Verge notes.
Will It Really, Though?
Will Fuchsia really replace Android? The notion seems highly ludicrous, especially since Android seems to be getting better, more secure, and generally more adaptable when it comes to running on all kinds of hardware. Heck, Google has just started integrating Android apps into Chrome OS — and users are supposed to believe that in three years, all of that will be gone?
The most important thing to remember here is that neither CEO Sundar Pichai nor Android and Chrome boss Hiroshi Lockheimer have signed off on the ambitious Fuchsia plan. In a statement to The Verge, a spokesperson confirmed that Fuchsia remains "one of many experimental open source projects at Google."
Long story short, Fuchsia has a long way to go before it can eventually replace both Android and Chrome OS — but the fact that Google engineers are carving a path toward such a scenario is promising at the very least.
