It’s by no means enjoyable to be in final place. Google has been coasting together with its Android tablets and Chromebooks for years, enjoying second fiddle to the larger gamers within the sport.
However the firm has a brand new card up its sleeve: the upcoming merger of its two platforms into one thing fully new. Phrase on the road is that it’s known as Aluminium OS, and it’s coming before you would possibly suppose.
What Is Aluminium OS?
Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice chairman of units and providers.
Courtesy of Drew Angerer/Getty Photos
Ever because the failed launch of the Pixel Slate again in 2018, which was Google’s first try at integrating ChromeOS and Android, onlookers have been questioning what the way forward for these platforms can be. Studies a few new desktop working system have been mucking round for years, one thing that blends ChromeOS with Android.
Google talked about interoperability enhancements between ChromeOS and Android at Google I/O 2025. Up to now decade, Google has made small strikes towards integrating these two working programs, nevertheless it has been incremental, beginning with bringing Android apps to Chromebooks, after which with smaller options that make them really feel like a single ecosystem of merchandise. It isn’t dissimilar to Apple’s strategy. To date, each corporations have resisted fully unifying cell and desktop computing, and Apple has denied plans to merge macOS and iPadOS.
Extra just lately, at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in September, Google confirmed that ChromeOS and Android will merge; Google’s {hardware} chief, Rick Osterloh, took to the stage to supply some particulars. He referred to the working system as “bringing Android to the PC market” and confirmed a partnership with Qualcomm on this new platform. It’s a becoming accomplice, contemplating the chipmaker’s expertise in powering telephones, tablets, and laptops. Later throughout the convention, Google’s Sameer Samat, president of the Android ecosystem, reportedly mentioned that Google has “always had very different systems between what we’re building on PCs and what we’re building on smartphones. We’ve embarked on a project to combine that.”
The Google execs confirmed this enterprise would launch someday in 2026. Google I/O 2026 appears an apparent selection, however we’ll have to attend and see.
