Future Samsung Smartphones Might Ship With Fuchsia OS Instead Of Android

Samsung has been one of the contributors to the development of Fuchsia OS, and a new report now claims that the company might ditch Android in favor of the new operating system in the future. Fuchsia is an open-source operating system developed by Google and is currently available as part of the company’s Nest line of smart speakers (formerly Google Home). Unlike Google’s other operating systems — Android and Chrome OS — which are built on the Linux kernel, Fuchsia is based on a new kernel named Zircon.

Samsung is the leading vendor of Android smartphones, although the company doesn’t use Google’s operating system in its televisions. Instead, the company uses Tizen OS on its smart TVs as part of its plans to differentiate its offerings from the likes of Sony, which uses Android TV to power its smart televisions. The company also used Tizen in its Galaxy Watch line of smartwatches until last year before adopting Google’s Wear OS in its latest Galaxy Watch 4 lineup.

Earlier today, a tweet from tipster Dohyun Kim claimed that Samsung is prepping to say goodbye to Android and replace it with Fuchsia OS in its future smartphones. However, the transition may not happen immediately and might take “a few years.” There’s no immediate word on the timeline, but the tweet has been corroborated by prolific tipster Ice Universe, who replied “yes” to Kim’s aforementioned tweet, suggesting that they have also heard similar reports from their sources.

Samsung Is A Contributor To Fuschia

This is not the first time that rumors about Samsung’s possible switch to Fuschia have surfaced online. Similar reports first started circulating last May, when tipster Ice Universe claimed that it’s “very possible” that Samsung will adopt the new platform in the future. Beyond Samsung’s plans with Fuchsia, Google was also said to be toying with the idea of migrating its Pixel lineup to the new platform at some stage. A 2018 report from Bloomberg claimed as much, saying that the company might migrate its phones and smart speakers to Fuchsia. Google has since, indeed, switched over to Fuchsia for its smart speaker lineup, so it remains to be seen what happens to Android going forward.

Samsung has been actively contributing to the development of Fuchsia ever since Google opened up its codebase for public contributions late last year. The company has already added a wealth of code to the new OS, including snippets related to the ‘Flash-Friendly File System,’ or F2FS, a flash file system developed by Samsung and is found in newer Galaxy smartphones. So while today’s news isn’t entirely surprising, a complete switchover to Fuchsia would still make for an interesting choice for Samsung and Google, the two companies that have gained the most from Android over the years.

Source: Dohyun Kim/Twitter, Ice Universe/Twitter, Bloomberg