Google says its new Linux Terminal feature isn’t a replacement for Android’s desktop mode

One of the most exciting new features that arrived in the latest Pixel Drop update is the new Linux Terminal app. The Linux Terminal app lets you boot up an instance of Debian in a virtual machine, opening the door to running many Linux apps that aren’t available on Android. The rollout of the Linux Terminal app in the latest Pixel update came as a surprise to many as Google hadn’t publicly mentioned it in the months leading to its release. In an effort to combat wild speculation, a Google employee has finally commented on why the company recently introduced the Terminal app, in turn revealing important information about the future of Linux apps on Android.

Since late last year, we’ve been tracking Google’s efforts to let you run Linux apps on Android. Google has been working in the open on improvements to the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) since last year, culminating in the creation of the new Linux Terminal app that we first showcased in October. While the source code for Google’s virtualization efforts has been publicly available, the reasoning behind those efforts has never been disclosed. We speculated that Google was adding this Terminal feature to prepare for the future migration of Chrome OS over to an Android stack, as the feature enables an experience similar to how Linux apps operate on Chromebooks.