Google's Fuchsia OS That Could Eventually Displace Android Captured On Video

When it comes to operating systems for smartphones, tablets, and notebooks we all know what Google has to offer. We have Android for tablets and smartphones and then you have Chrome OS for notebooks and desktops. We also know that Google is working on another operating system that might be the replacement for both Chrome OS and Android called Fuchsia.

When we last visited Fuchsia, a PixelBook was serving as the testbed for the next generation operating system. Fast forward a couple weeks and more details of the Fuchsia operating system have surfaced along with videos of it in action. The video show an operating system with a home screen that is very different from what you are used to if you are a Windows or OS X user.

One of the major things that sets the new OS apart from Chrome OS and Android is that Fuchsia isn’t based on the Linux kernel: Fuchsia is installed based on a new kernel called Zircon. 

When you first launch the new OS, there is a screen with three buttons on the bottom right that can be clicked on a laptop device or touched with a smartphone or tablet. You can only login as a guest at this point and that will get you to a home screen that is very different from what you are used to seeing with Google software. It appears to have a personalized feed that is packed with Google-related items, and you can see cards for Google Maps, calendar and playlist in the images here.

You won't see any dock, desktop icons or launchers on Fuchsia (at least not now), but there is a search bar that combs your computer rather than the web allowing you to find your apps and other content. It would be no surprise if in production form the search bar would search your computer or device and the web for related content. Apps in the current Fuchsia build don’t work, but you can see what they should look like with a differently colored strip at the top of the screen showing when you are in an app.

Multitasking is supported, as you would expect since that has been offer with Android since version 6.0. With Fuchsia, you can snap two apps together with one covering the top half of the screen and the other the bottom half. Closed apps will stack in the app switcher, which is seen on the top of the screen in reverse order form what you opened most recently. A tap of the Fuchsia symbol opens a settings panel to allow you to control functions like airplane mode, volume, brightness and other items.

The OS does fully support phone mode and can swap on the fly between phone and a tablet/laptop mode. These additional videos will give you a glimpse into the Fuchsia OS in action. We have now word on when the OS might make it into production or if Google plans to put the OS into production at all.