In an unexpected turn of events, Google’s mysterious Fuchsia OS may be making its way onto Android devices not as a full-fledged replacement, but as a virtual native. Fuchsia OS was first introduced in 2016 and made its first commercial debut in 2021 with the launch of the first-generation Nest Hub. However, its reach has not yet extended beyond the Nest Hub. However, a recent report suggests that Fuchsia OS could run as a virtual machine on Android devices.

Fuchsia offers an excellent foundation compared to Android and ChromeOS. It ditches the modified Linux kernel and is built from the ground up with a microkernel called Zircon. This microkernel architecture promises performance, flexibility, and security benefits by minimizing the amount of trusted code in the system.

A new twist comes in the form of a project called “Microfuchsia.” The project reportedly aims to enable Fuchsia to run on existing devices through virtualization.

Virtualization creates a software copy of a physical device that allows it to run in a separate computing environment. This isolation ensures that the host operating system and programs running in the virtual machine do not interfere with each other.

Reports from the Fuchsia Gerrit code repository suggest that microfuchsia will use virtualization software such as QEMU and pKVM. The latter, developed by Google, focuses on multi-layered security for isolated workload execution. Interestingly, Google has also created a lightweight version of Android called “microdroid” for this purpose.

The potential functionality of microfuchsia on Android devices is currently unclear. However, its similarity to microdroid suggests that it could be used for tasks that require more security. Also, given the existence of microdroid, the reason for the separate Fuchsia solution has not yet been explained. It is possible that Google sees Fuchsia as a more secure and performant option for virtualized workloads in the Android ecosystem.