- Google is developing a Linux terminal app for Android.
- The Terminal app can be enabled via developer options and will install Debian in a virtual machine.
- This app is likely intended for Chromebooks but might also be available for mobile devices, too.
Although a lot of work can be done in a web browser these days, some tasks still require installing apps that aren’t available on Chrome OS, which is why Google lets you install Linux apps on your Chromebook. While there are ways to run some Linux apps on Android devices, all of those methods have some limitations and aren’t officially supported by Google. Fortunately, though, Google is finally working on an official way to run Linux apps on Android.
Engineers at Google started work on a new Terminal app for Android a couple of weeks ago. This Terminal app is part of the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) and contains a WebView that connects to a Linux virtual machine via a local IP address, allowing you to run Linux commands from the Android host. Initially, you had to manually enable this Terminal app using a shell command and then configure the Linux VM yourself. However, in recent days, Google began work on integrating the Terminal app into Android as well as turning it into an all-in-one app for running a Linux distro in a VM.