Android + Chrome = Andromeda; merged OS reportedly coming to the Pixel 3

(credit: Andrew Cunningham)

It has been almost a year since The Wall Street Journal dropped a bomb of a scoop on the Android community, saying Chrome OS would be "folded into" Android. The resulting product would reportedly bring Android to laptops and desktops. According to the paper, the internal effort to merge these two OSes had been underway for "roughly two years" (now three years) with a release planned for 2017 and an "early version" to show things off in 2016. It seems like we're still on that schedule, and now Android Police claims to have details on the new operating system—and its first launch device—coming Q3 2017.

First up, we've got a host of new code names to throw at you. The hybrid OS is apparently called "Andromeda." Besides being the name of a galaxy, it's probably meant as a geeky portmanteau of "Android" and "Chrome." Google also has a launch device cooking for Andromeda, which is officially codenamed "Bison"—Android Police says this is the unofficial codename of "Pixel 3." "Pixel 3" is a reference to the "Chromebook Pixel" (Google's flagship laptop line for Chrome OS), but since this edition isn't running Chrome OS, you can't really call it a "Chromebook" anymore.

We've seen Android and Chrome OS slowly come together in various ways recently, with Chrome OS gaining the ability to run Android apps and Android snagging Chrome OS' dual partition update system. It's easy to see the hybrid OS reports as an overhyped version of these products, but Android Police says Andromeda is a "completely distinct effort" from what is currently public. "Andromeda is a much larger, more ambitious initiative that is being pursued via merging Chrome features into Android not vice versa" the report says. "It would be more accurate to say Bison [AKA the Pixel 3 laptop] will run Android [rather] than Chrome OS."