“Google Fuchsia.

“Fuchsia is about pushing the state of the art” says Senior Vice President of Google Android & Chrome.
But what does he mean by that? We all remember our surprise when the project first appeared on
GitHub back in August 2016. Every developer had the same questions in mind; is this the new Android?
Or is it the latest Chrome OS? Or is it the replacement for both? There are several rumors that came
with the introduction of this operating system, however, what most suggestions happen to say is that
the Fuchsia Team is working to have the system work on every kind of device: from laptops to
smartphones etc.

Let us talk about the history of Fuchsia and where all of this started. Fuchsia first appeared on GitHub.
GitHub is an open site for developers to introduce and share their projects. Like Android was before
Fuchsia, Fuchsia was also presented as a free piece of software. What makes Fuchsia differ from Android
and Chrome OS is that Fuchsia is based on a new microkernel called as Zircon, while the previous
operating systems were based on Linux kernel.

So what is Google Fuchsia for? No one still knows of what is Google’s intention behind this system, and
what it intends to do with it. They have repeatedly denied the theory of it replacing the former systems
which made us think that Google did not have great plans for it after all. However, this thought quickly
vanished when Fuchsia introduced a user interface & we gained insight from one of the developers who
claimed that it was a real project which lead to us thinking about the greater plans Google might have
for Fuchsia.

Recent speculation suggests that Fuchsia will be first available for home devices like such as smart
speakers, and then only will be later available for smartphones and laptops. There have also been
reports that tell about Google Fuchsia being tested on the Pixelbook and also suggest tremendous plans
for Google’s product development timetable which suggests Fuchsia will be released in approximately
three to five years.

Let’s talk about features of Fuchsia for now. From the user interface that came up two years ago, it is
discovered that Fuchsia’s apps and its user interface is written with Flutter which is a software
development kit which allows a cross-platform for development of Fuchsia, IOS and Android. Flutters
develops its apps based on Dar, offering high performances app that can run at the rate of 120 apps per
second. Impressive? Yes. Fuchsia also offers an engine rending graphics called as “Escher” which it
seems to be a custom build element to run of Google’s interface guidelines.

Due to Flutter’s availability of cross-platform development opportunities, users can install Fuchsia on
their Android devices. However, it is to be noted that nothing works as yet, it is just a placeholder
interface which is not able to do anything. A few similarities between both Fuchsia and Android can still
be recognized though: they both have a recent apps screen, a split-screen for the view of multiple
screens at once and a settings menu. It is also known that a new version of Android Runtime will be
developed for Fuchsia and it will be the equivalent of Android APK.

We talked earlier about the thing that gives Fuchsia a new identity that differs from Google’s other
operating systems: the kernel. So what is that special about Zircon? The unique thing about Zircon is
that it gives the ability to scale down to the embedded systems of the OS and smaller devices. While
there have been several ventures of Android with household appliances, Fuchsia will become a much
better fit for home refrigerators, smart televisions etc. Fuchsia is expected to be the future internet of
things. This means a new whole world of intelligent devices that take automation to a whole another
level. It may sound absurd but this talks about your groceries talking to your refrigerator and already
ordering replacements for whatever thing you’re running low on, and then it to be delivered by drone.
This is the future it talks about. If Google is thinking about this shift, it is a smart move as in more ways
than one, and we’re already very close to that future. Fuchsia may be the universal operating system
which can bind all these systems together and then link them with some larger device to control them.

While Fuchsia had the ability to scale up to smaller devices, it can scale up to larger devices like laptops
and computers as well which can support MIPS, x86 processors and ARM which makes Fuchsia a system
available and adaptable for each and every device.

What is Fuchsia like to use? Fuchsia is still in its infancy. Fuchsia’s current UI is called as “Armadillo.”
That being said, there are some impressive designs and uses already and is as far on the development
stage that hackers can now run it on phones and computers. If we do try to download and access
Fuchsia, we would be greeted with a home screen where we can scroll apps vertically. There is a profile
card that has basic settings and a profile picture at the bottom of the screen. There is a search engine
and a keyboard which has a few similarities with G Board.

What Google plans to do with Fuchsia, and if it is to replace Android any time soon are questions which
only Google knows: or maybe not? There is a chance that Google might abandon Fuchsia all together is
it thinks it is not worth it. There is a possibility that Google breaks up their own market and cancel
Android all together to introduce Fuchsia. Our best bet is Google slowly introduces Fuchsia and gradually
develops it to larger devices that would work best. Either way, there is still a lot of time before any of
this happens. Fuchsia is still in its very early stages, and is unlikely to be installed or used in the next few
years.