After having spotted Fuchsia 1.0 running on the original Google Home Hub via a Bluetooth qualification listing last month, 9to5Google has been directly told by Google that the mysterious new zircon microkernel-based operating system will be rolling out to that very same device over the coming months.
Up until now, the smart home hub has run Google’s Cast OS, but with this change, the very code of the device will be replaced as Fuchsia makes its first public appearance outside of testing and development. Even still, the user experience will be identical. Reportedly, the interface and functionality will remain the same, and this OS swap is likely a way for Google to see how the OS fares out in the wild while giving them an opportunity to squash bugs that rear their heads in real-world use-cases. In other words, while Fuchsia has a long way to go, it’s time to take the training wheels off.
Apparently, the rollout will begin with the Preview Program – something Nest users can enroll in to get early release updates and try things out before they’re completely stable and released to the masses. If you go this route, you’re unlikely to notice that you’re using something completely different internally – not to mention the fact that it may take several updates to fully replace Cast OS.
For those unfamiliar, Fuchsia is shaping up to be more of a back end IoT platform than it is a front-end visual transformation as previously expected. Samsung recently became a contributor to the project, hinting at the company possibly making the switch in the future. It’s unlikely that Fuchsia will replace Android any time soon, so don’t get your hopes up too high. Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s SVP has previously stated that there is room for multiple operating systems with different strengths and specializations, so the best approach is to enjoy watching events unfold without making too many assumptions or judgement calls regarding Fuchsia’s purpose longterm.
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