In the last year, Google has worked to replace the “CastOS” operating system on its 1st and 2nd generation Nest Hub smart displays with the new Zircon-based Fuchsia. At the time, it seemed like the company was set to bring it to all its smart home devices.
According to 9to5Google, the tech giant has pumped the brakes on these plans for its smart speaker lineup. While browsing the Chromium Commits, 9to5 discovered that the Fuchsia team has categorized all of its work on speakers as “unsupported.” Even more telling, they’ve erased all prior code work related to it.
The reason for this reversal isn’t entirely clear. One possibility suggested is that Fuchsia’s CPU requirements may be too much for the Pixel Tablet dock, despite efforts to make it compatible. Alternatively, the recent layoffs at Google could have left the company short-staffed for such an undertaking and it may just be taking a backseat for now.
So, for the time being, your smart speakers will continue to use CastOS. Luckily, the user experience has never really changed when Fuchsia overtook the Nest Hub and Hub Max, so you’re not really missing out on anything at all.
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