Google’s Fuchsia OS has been circling for a while with some wild rumours about it and what it is intended for. Overnight Bloomberg reported that Project Fuchsia was planned to replace Android within five years.
Fuchsia OS is reportedly being developed by over 100 Google engineers to unify all of Google operating systems into a single, multi-use OS. The plan seems to be beginning with a smart speaker running Fuchsia OS in around three years ultimately followed by smartphones, replacing Android as their OS according to Bloomberg:
Engineers have said they want to embed Fuchsia on connected home devices, such as voice-controlled speakers, within three years, then move on to larger machines such as laptops. Ultimately the team aspires to swap in their system for Android… The aim is for this to happen in the next half decade
At this stage that is likely pie in the sky stuff it seems with Sundar Pichai and Hiroshi Lockheimer yet to approve any form of a road map for Fuchsia. Google are still publicly stating that Fuchsia is an “open-source experiment” and consider it “an investment in innovation” so even if Fuchsia does not fulfill its supposed destiny you can be sure that Google will use some of the code and lessons learned from it elsewhere.
After this report from Bloomberg Google has provided a statement to CNET have said that they have no definitive plans to replace Android within the next five years. This does of course leave the door open for Fuchsia OS to replace Android — just because there are no definitive plans it does not mean there never will be. If Fuchsia OS pans out to be what Google hope it will be then they surely will not hesitate to introduce it.
Although Fuchsia sounds great Google are well known for ditching software developments a long way into their lifespan (RIP Andromeda). After we were all so excited about Andromeda reinvigorating the Android/Google tablet scene and it was seemingly dumped at the last minute we suggest you keep your expectations tempered and wait until Google actually announce it before getting too excited.
Fuschia OS will likely be renamed Andromeda, so Andromeda OS will return.
The market for tablet computers has shrunk, and all efforts are now directed towards getting Google Assistant in as many places and devices as possible. Tablets are barely an afterthought.
There’s no doubt Fuschia / Andromeda will replace Android. It might happen sooner than five years if Google loses its patent appeal with Oracle over the use of Java in Android.