Google is no longer bringing the full Chrome browser to Fuchsia

Kyle Bradshaw | Jan 15 2024 - 10:30 am PT

Google has formally discontinued its efforts to bring the full Chrome browser experience to its Fuchsia operating system.

Related: Google wants to redesign the Chrome side panel [Gallery]

In 2021, we reported that the Chromium team had begun an effort to get the full Chrome/Chromium browser running on Google’s in-house Fuchsia operating system. Months later, in early 2022, we were even able to record a video of the progress, demonstrating that Chromium (the open-source-only variant of Chrome) could work relatively well on a Fuchsia-powered device.

This was far from the first time that the Chromium project had been involved with Fuchsia. Google’s full lineup of Nest Hub smart displays is currently powered by Fuchsia under the hood, and those displays have limited web browsing capabilities through an embedded version of the browser.

In contrast to that minimal experience, Google was seemingly working to bring the full might of Chrome to Fuchsia. To observers, this was yet another signal that Google intended for Fuchsia to grow beyond the smart home and serve as a full desktop operating system. After all, what good is a laptop or desktop without a web browser? Fans of the Fuchsia project have anticipated its eventual expansion to desktop since Fuchsia was first shown to run on Google’s Pixelbook hardware.

However, in the intervening time – a period that also saw significant layoffs in the Fuchsia division – it seems that Google has since shifted Fuchsia in a different direction. The clearest evidence of that move comes from a Chromium code change (and related bug tracker post) published last month declaring that the “Chrome browser on fuchsia won’t be maintained.”

In explaining the removal, the post cites that the work to bring Chrome to Fuchsia was considered “an experiment” that is “not used anymore.” More specifically, in mid-2022, the Fuchsia team shared its plans to wind down the project’s “workstation” build, which was meant to serve as a more user-friendly way for developers to test their software on the nascent operating system. Beyond that, our team has seen indications that some Googlers were using a variation of Fuchsia’s workstation to test certain everyday activities like Google Meet calls.

In place of workstation, Fuchsia is gaining the much more minimal “workbench” designed almost exclusively for developer testing purposes. Google even goes so far as to say that workbench should not serve as a foundation for a Fuchsia-based product (like the Nest Hub software).

It is intended to be like a literal workbench in that it supports development tools and allows a developer to poke at the system and make changes. It is not intended to be a product that ships to users, or be a basis for those products.

At first, the shift from workstation to workbench seems like a simple name change, but the subsequent discontinuation of Chrome for Fuchsia all but confirms that Google does not intend to release a desktop/mobile device directly powered by Fuchsia in the foreseeable future.

Importantly, this move has no implications for the Nest Hub lineup, which will continue to receive updates and support web-based features as normal.