Google’s Nest Hub 2nd Gen Gets a Major Upgrade with Fuchsia Operating System

Google is now putting out an update for the second-generation Nest Hub that is built on Fuchsia. This is the third official device to run on Google’s own operating system.

Google launched Fuchsia in 2021 as an update for the original Nest Hub smart display. It took years for Google to build its own operating system from scratch that wasn’t based on Linux. Even though the whole system underneath was changed, the smart display experience was mostly the same. Last year, the bigger Nest Hub Max got the same kind of update. It got Fuchsia without making it clear to the average smart display owner that anything had changed.

Google told us today that the second-generation Nest Hub, which came out in 2021 and came with a Soli radar tracker to track sleep, is now getting its own Fuchsia update. As before, the new OS will be rolled out slowly, starting with a small number of Google Home app users who have signed up for Preview Program updates. After a few months of review by the public, the update should be available to more people.

The features of the Nest Hub (2nd Gen) will not change, so it shouldn’t be a wonder that Google wants this update to be mostly unnoticed. Checking the version number, either on the display itself or in the Google Home app, is the best way to see if your smart display has been updated. If your Nest Hub’s “Technical information” page in Settings says “Fuchsia version,” it’s been updated.

This new update to Fuchsia makes sense and is something we’ve been looking forward to for a long time. When it’s done, all three of Google’s smart screens will have been updated from Cast OS to Fuchsia.

Still, the timing is a bit strange, since the Nest Hub series is about to be replaced by the Pixel Tablet, an Android-powered device that will come out soon. In a similar way, Google has stopped updating third-party smart displays, and Nest Hub displays will lose a lot of apps and games that use Assistant later this year.

We already have a good idea of where the Fuchsia project will go after all smart screens have been updated. So it makes sense that the operating system will replace the Linux-based Cast OS again, this time on Nest speakers.

People who have been following the project for a long time know that Fuchsia could be useful for a lot more than just smart homes. It is being worked on as a “general-purpose” operating system, like Windows, Linux, and macOS. Even more, the company is working on a way for Linux and Android apps to run “natively” on Fuchsia.

With any luck, Fuchsia will only use the Nest ecosystem as a stepping stone and test bed before going on to other things.

In its statement, Google talked about Fuchsia’s bigger goals and stressed how “long-term” it is. It also told developers to check out the official website to learn more about Fuchsia.

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