Early last fall, about a month out from Google’s hardware event in early October, some rumors began swirling around a unified OS Google was working on.
Andromeda
Rumors turned into psuedo-facts, code leaks, and a purposed 2016 release of a device that would drive the entire effort.
Only, none of that ever happened.
As the months wore on, the rumor mill would crank up and a few articles about the impending release of Andromeda would show up and fade away. Each time they showed up, we collectively rolled our eyes. After all, we’d written quite a bit about what we thought Andromeda could be, but we never felt it was something that would ever see the light of day.
There were simply too few clues. Too few hard facts. Too few substantiated rumors.
Andromeda’s Demise?
Today, Stephen Hall tweeted this:
So yeah, got a second source on this now: Andromeda was shelved. Some of the work being moved to other things, though. Trying to learn more.
— Stephen Hall (@hallstephenj) June 4, 2017
Now, just as we didn’t when the pro-Andromeda rumors began, we won’t assume that this tweet is an absolute fact.
However, we may never know, either. That’s the funny thing about rumors. What the rumor started as may never make it to see the light of day. Whether it was shelved or simply never existed is – and may forever remain – a mystery.
Since Google never has to comment officially on a rumor, it is hard to know what Andromeda ever was.
When contrasted with something like Fuchsia OS, it is easy to see why we were skeptical the entire time. Fuchsia OS has big names working on it, a dedicated GIT repository, and received a little bit of fireside time at Google I/O. Though mysterious, we can see that something is brewing there.
Whether Andromeda was a code for Google’s efforts to bring Android to Chrome OS or a separate project all together, it looks like the whole thing is being cast aside.
In my opinion, as the Android on Chrome OS project began taking hold, an additional OS merge stopped making sense. Whatever Andromeda was, it looks like it may be no more.
Andromeda is (likely) dead. Long live Chrome OS.