Google’s long-awaited, scratch operating system, Fuchsia, is now running on Real Made, created by Google devices, such as the first-generation Nest Hub.
Google has informed us that to date; an update is starting for the first-generation owners of Nest Hub, first published in 2018. For all intents and purposes, this update will not change the functionality of the Nest Hub, but under the hood, the Smart Display will run Fuchsia OS instead of the Linux-based “Cast OS” previously used. In fact, your experience with Nest Hub should be basically identical. This is possible because Google’s smart display experience is built with Flutter, designed to bring applications across multiple platforms, including Fuchsia, consistently.
We’ve been looking to develop Fuchsia since 2016, starting with the ambitious experimental UI to run on many of Google’s internal testing devices for Fuchsia, focusing on the full glory of Google’s smart home and Chromebook lineup. During that time, the OS has progressed slowly and recently even started an uninterrupted release schedule.
Earlier this month, we saw the first-generation Google Nest Hub release the first “Fuchsia 1.0” as it received new approval from Bluetooth SIG. This indicates that Google Fuchsia is expanding from its internal testing process to more public exposure. This time around, we’ve posted that it could be easily noticed as a way for developers to try new OS, but Google I / O – the developer-centric event of the company – is now behind us; it seems Google had a grand plan in action.
Fuchsia-based updates for Nest Hub will begin a few months before the preview program is finally becoming more widely available. Considering the interface and experience will remain unchanged, perhaps the owners of Nest Hub will not notice that they have been switched to Fuchsia OS. That said, Google seems to be cautious with this rollout for months, as switching to operating systems is not an easy update.
Today’s release marks Google’s biggest public move toward developing the Fuchsia operating system that the average person can use. By field testing it on Wild’s original devices, Google could prove that starting with them, the “not Linux” operating system is ready to be used in smart homes as a drop-in replacement for the cast OS. For now, it’s not clear if Google wants to port other Cast OS-based devices to Fuchsia.
That said, one of the many ways Google has searched for Fuchsia is Smart Home, where the OS enables Android applications to be enabled, even enabling both desktops and smartphones. At the suggestion of Google’s Hiroshi Lockheimer in 2019, the smart home was created by Google devices – and beyond that could be a starting point for Fuchsia.
“It’s not just phones and PCs. In the IoT world, there is an increasing number of devices that require operating systems and new runtimes and so on. I think there’s a lot of room for multiple operating systems with different strengths and specializations. Fuchsia is one of those things and so, stay tuned.”— Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google SVP of Android, Chrome/OS, Play, and Photos.
