14 DAY TRIAL // Just a couple of days after releasing the OTA-3 software update for supported Ubuntu Phone devices, Ubuntu Touch maintainer UBports now teases users with upcoming support for Android apps.
Remember Anbox (Android-in-a-Box)? It's the open-source project that allows Linux users to run Android apps in a container inside their GNU/Linux distributions. Well, UBports has found a way to implement Anbox into the Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system to let Ubuntu Phone owners run Android apps too.
"People have come to depend on certain applications that are not available on Ubuntu Touch. In order to become a full-featured and mainstream mobile operating system, Ubuntu Touch needs to offer its users the proprietary services they depend on, at least until the point when free and open source alternatives are viable," writes Dalton Durst.
Bringing support for Android apps to Ubuntu Touch will bring Ubuntu Phone devices to a whole new level, not to mention that there won't be the need for UBports developers to spend their precious time creating third-party clients for various popular proprietary services just to keep the Ubuntu mobile platform alive.
Android apps support coming to Ubuntu Phones in the next few weeks
After recently reaching a new milestone in the implementation of Anbox into Ubuntu Touch, now UBports promises the general availability of the first preview version of Android apps support for the Ubuntu Touch operating system in the next few weeks, along with detailed instructions on how to set it up for your Ubuntu Phones.
The bad news, however, is that not all Ubuntu Phones will be capable of running Android apps. At the moment, UBports hasn't revealed details on supported devices, but they said Anbox would be an optional feature for Ubuntu Touch, which will allow users to run containerized, secure Android apps that will be completely isolated from the rest of the OS.