Less than a year after the work was first discovered, it seems Google has abandoned its plans to upgrade its line of Assistant smart speakers to the Fuchsia operating system.
Since 2017, we’ve been closely following the development of Fuchsia, Google’s in-house operating system. In that time, it went from an early prototype to being the underlying software that powers all three of Google’s Nest Hub smart displays. Along the way, Google has also worked on supporting other hardware on Fuchsia, including the Pixelbook series, developer boards, and more.
Last year, we reported that Google’s Fuchsia team had renewed its efforts to support smart speakers. Long story short, the team had experimented with a single speaker, ditched that effort, then “restored” it later on. More importantly, the Fuchsia team was found to be working on multiple speakers, the most notable of which was an as-yet-unreleased speaker equipped with UWB.
This, along with the direct involvement of the SoC manufacturer Amlogic, signaled to us that Fuchsia was on track to replace the underlying “Cast OS” of speakers like the Nest Audio after accomplishing the same feat for the Nest Hub series. However, it seems that this will no longer be the case.
In a newly posted code change, the Fuchsia team formally marked all of its speaker hardware as “unsupported” and altogether removed the related code. Among the hardware now unsupported by Fuchsia, you’ll find the underlying SoCs for the Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Wifi point, a potentially upcoming Nest speaker, and some Android Things-based smart speakers.
The Fuchsia team hasn’t shared a reason why its smart speaker efforts were discontinued. One issue that potentially played a role is that the Amlogic A113L chip used in “Clover” – an unknown device that we suspect may be the Pixel Tablet dock – does not meet Fuchsia’s strict CPU requirements. Amlogic’s engineers attempted to work around this issue, seemingly to no avail.
Top comment by ikjadoon
None of Google's management decisions surprise me anymore.
Wasn't there an expose a few months ago from ex-Googlers who all basically said Google is hyper-focused on the short-term and doesn't care about anything long-term?
If it's obvious inside & outside Google, then it needs a CEO that can build a vision and execute.
Another factor may be the sweeping layoffs that Google enacted at the beginning of the year. Early estimates suggested at least 16% of the Fuchsia team’s approximately 400 members were laid off, while a reliable source tells 9to5Google that the final number, after international layoffs, was upwards of 20%.
Read more: Google’s Fuchsia and Area 120 see significant cuts in layoffs
Whatever the reasoning, it’s disappointing to us to see the door close on Fuchsia’s most obvious next step after smart displays. To a certain degree, it seems some Googlers on the team share in that sentiment. One engineer commented on the code change to salute the departing hardware (“🫡”), while another metaphorically poured one out (“🫗”) for the outgoing speakers.
Importantly, the Nest Hub series of smart displays are entirely unaffected by this change. Those devices will continue to run Fuchsia under the hood and will continue to receive updates as normal.
More on Fuchsia:
- Nest Hub 2nd Gen updates to Google’s Fuchsia operating system
- Google accidentally reveals an upcoming device will launch with Fuchsia
- Interview: Fuchsia’s past, present, and future, as told by ex-director Chris McKillop
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