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Google's Fuchsia OS Spotted With Android Apps Support Through Android Runtime

Google's Fuchsia OS Spotted With Android Apps Support Through Android Runtime

By Gagan Gupta | Updated: 3 January 2019 12:29 IST

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Google's Fuchsia OS Spotted With Android Apps Support Through Android Runtime

Fuchsia is being designed to overcome the limitations of Android OS

Highlights

Android app support confirmed on Project Fuchsia
The support with come in the form of .far files
Project Fuchsia will work across devices

Google has been quietly working on its next generation operating system that could eventually replace Android altogether. This new OS has been known as Project Fuchsia so far. The thing is, Android - the world's biggest mobile OS - has a millions of apps in its ecosystem, which will need support on this new OS. Now it seems, that Android-app support will indeed be coming to the upcoming OS, thanks to a new change found in the Android Open Source Project.

As reported by 9to5Google, citing a change to the Android Gerrit, Fuchsia will use a specially designed version of the Android Runtime (as indicated by “ART” in the image below) to run Android apps. This version of ART will be installable on any Fuchsia OS device using a FAR file, which is Fuchsia's equivalent of Android's APK file.

Fuchsia is being created from the ground up to overcome certain limitations that Android presents, as mobile hardware gets more and more capable. The new OS should be able to work across a range of products including phones, laptops, and even smart devices. The OS is being built to be more secure, better capable to understand voice interactions and look the same across devices.

Android app support was being speculated for quite a while now, but now that it's reported to be confirmed, the transition should be easier not only for users, but also app developers. That said, it's still unclear in what capacity the apps will be supported, and also to what extent.

What's also unknown as of now is how soon will we expect the OS the roll out and which devices will be the first to get it.

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Further reading: Fuchsia, Google, Android