Google’s new operating system, “Fuchsia” remains mostly a mystery today. However, one thing is clear and that’s the fact that the company hopes to make it the driving force behind its smart display hardware. Back in June, the Nest Hub Max followed suit in offering a Preview Program for Fuchsia after the original Hub started using the new OS successfully a year prior.
Now, as of version 6.20211109.1.3166243, as reported by 9to5Google, this is no longer a preview, but rather a full release. All Nest Hub Max devices that have been updated (apparently, this occurs while you’re sleeping) will now run Fuchsia exclusively. Before, Nest devices ran CastOS, the same technology that Chromecast operated on.
If you’d like to check and verify whether or not your Hub Max has been updated, just navigate to the System Settings and then to “About device”. As you can see below, the “Fuchsia Version” should be listed just under the device’s name.
For now, there’s not really much information on what benefits this offers you as a consumer, but I do have my sneaking suspicions. Call me crazy, but I still believe in the dream of one operating system that unifies all of Google’s hardware devices. Smartphones, Chromebooks, smartwatches, refrigerators, Android Auto head units, smart displays – the list goes on. When you look back at what Google was trying to do with “Andromeda”, Fuchsia still fits the bill. The only difference is that Google has been working with its head down to make it a viable OS that can one day replace Android, ChromeOS, and CastOS.
Once you replace the source code for these devices, as is the case with the 1st generation Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max, there’s virtually no difference in how they look or feel. I believe that this is exactly the point. Replace these aging, incongruent operating systems across all hardware with a one-size-fits-all OS that can stretch, scale, and morph based on the form factor, but that is more efficient, unified, clean, and scaleable for the future, and you’ve got a recipe for success the next several decades.
Google doesn’t need to make Fuchsia a flashy, bombshell reveal when it can simply make it inconspicuous and fit into your daily life without notice. The real meat and juice comes in when future updates drop and you start seeing Chromebooks, Pixel phones, Pixel and Wear watches, car displays, smart displays and more do some truly interesting and unique things in ways that don’t feel disparate from one another. The future is unified, and Google has known it for a long time.
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