Fuchsia, Google’s not-so-secret new operating system, is still shrouded in mystery with Google not really talking about what it is, what it will be – or indeed anything. Still, watching development has been fun and there’s been some surprising turns along the way with the latest being Fuchsia showing up in the Android RunTime (ART) branch of AOSP.
The discovery of Fuchsia support in the ART branch was made by XDA member forkbomb444, who tipped XDA’s news arm Editor-in-Chief Mishaal Rahman who in turn tweeted about the discovery.
Fuchsia OS just showed up in AOSP, but most importantly, in the ART (Android Runtime) branch. Looks like they're building Fuchsia with ART…which would suggest native Android app support.https://t.co/2BzpvTxf9d pic.twitter.com/xZaktz1wcp
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) April 26, 2018
The support of Fuchsia in the ART branch basically points to the possibility that Fuchsia could run Android apps natively, though this certainly isn’t a guarantee. Building in native support for Android apps – there’s about 3 million apps in Google Play – in Fuchsia would certainly go a long way towards gaining support for Fuchsia as a viable mainstream Operating System, if/when it does get launched.
Until now, apps in Fuchsia have mainly been developed using Google’s open-source mobile application development SDK called Flutter. As well as apps in Fuchsia, Flutter is currently being used by developers to build apps that run on both Android and iOS.
Any new OS needs apps, and though this development is far from a done deal, it could be a sign of things to come. There’s nothing on the schedule about Fuchsia at Google I/O thus far, but once the keynote is over anything could be added so we’ll be keeping a keen eye out for any announcements.
