Andromeda returns: A detailed history of Microsoft's foldable phone project

Last week, Microsoft unveiled Surface Duo, a pocketable dual-screen mobile device that's coming at the end of side by side year. This is a project we at Windows Central accept been following for nearly three years under the internal codename "Andromeda." Initially positioned as a Windows Core Bone device, Surface Duo will now be shipping as an Android device instead, a motility that few of us were expecting, but is admittedly the correct call.

Although a foldable phone by Microsoft came equally a surprise to many, this is actually projection we've known nigh for a very long time. It's something Microsoft has been working on since 2022, and has gone through many iterations and changes internally. As such, I thought it would be a absurd thought to gather all the of import historic points in the journey that has led us to Surface Duo, once codenamed Andromeda.

2016

Microsoft began working on its hush-hush Andromeda project at some point throughout 2022, not besides long later the visitor had decided to surrender on Windows 10 Mobile internally. It wasn't until November 2022 where I first started hearing nearly the Andromeda project from sources, and to mark the occasion, I teased the Andromeda codename in a tweet alongside a number of unrelated things that I was looking forward to in the future.

At the time, I didn't know besides much. My job is to dig around for data, and back then, information nigh the project was deficient. I knew information technology was a phone, and I knew it would exist running a new OS from Microsoft called Andromeda Os. Only that was it for the time being. Over the next two years, I would slowly just surely find out more than information nigh this secret mobile projection.

2017

In January 2022, I started hearing nearly more details around Andromeda. I had been told that the device was a dual-screen phone with a focus on pen and digital inking. What I mostly heard virtually, however, is the software side of things. Known as Andromeda Os internally, this was a season of Windows Core OS designed specifically for foldable devices, and its UX was a mix of both Windows 10 desktop and Windows 10 Mobile.

This UX layer was a sticking point for me, equally it was being described every bit an integral office of the Andromeda project. This UX layer was called CShell and was a universal crush designed to conform and exist modularized so that information technology can run on many kinds of form factor. This would be a fundamental component for a device with two screens that tin fold into dissimilar orientations.

CShell was the first component of Andromeda that I took a keen focus on, and after talking with several sources on the subject area, wrote up my beginning piece towards the Andromeda puzzle on Jan 16. Two days before this, a patent revealing a device with two screens appeared online, and it was at this moment that I started to understand the device Microsoft was trying to build.

Satya Nadella was later quoted saying that Microsoft's futurity phones would not look like normal phones. Not too long subsequently, references to this "Andromeda" device started showing up in code, and leaksters like WalkingCat had begun to dig up these references online. On May 20, Cassim Ketfi fired all cylinders and wrote the first report on his findings around the Andromeda project as a whole. At the time, I still hadn't written about Andromeda itself, as I still had lingering questions effectually its OS.

Andromeda Bone

Andromeda'due south OS was an interesting topic of conversation with sources, as, at the time, not everyone I was speaking to seemed to fully understand what it was. It wasn't immediately clear to me that Andromeda Os (as it was known at the time) was part of a much larger try known as Windows Core Bone. When Andromeda Os was beingness described to me, many were calling it a modular platform designed to scale to whatsoever course factor.

On September twenty, I wrote up the second piece of the puzzle towards Andromeda. This article detailed the Os, and how Microsoft was building a modular and universal version of Windows that would run across all kinds of different devices, including Andromeda. At the fourth dimension of publishing, I was still calling this effort Andromeda Bone, and over the side by side week, several sources would clarify that Andromeda OS is simply ane role of this modular project known as Windows Core OS.

Finally, on October 26, I published my findings effectually Microsoft's hole-and-corner Andromeda project, tying together the CShell and Windows Core OS articles before information technology to paint a picture show around how enormous this endeavour was internally. I was told that Microsoft wouldn't exist positioning this device as merely a telephone. At this indicate, I was hearing that Andromeda was on track for a tardily 2022 launch, with the possibility of a programmer kit existence released at Microsoft's Build developer conference in May 2022.

Andromeda, a dual-screen foldable phone by Microsoft that runs a new version of Windows, was really happening. And information technology was super exciting.

2018

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Equally 2022 rolled effectually, I had started to learn about some absurd photographic camera tech that would slot the device neatly into the Mixed Reality category with capabilities such as 3D scanning and more, only new details around the project had slowed significantly exterior of patents which seemingly revealed new ideas every week. Many of those ideas were not actually part of the Andromeda project, of grade.

Every bit Build 2022 approached, it became clear that Microsoft would not exist shipping an Andromeda developer kit, as the project itself had slipped behind schedule. In May, I had heard from sources that the company was looking at many different ways to combat the "app-gap" problem that Andromeda would ultimately face, and 1 solution the company was considering was running Android apps on Andromeda via emulation, similar to Project Astoria.

The trouble with Project Astoria is that information technology worked too well, and there were licensing and political issues around using like tech in Andromeda. Would Google fifty-fifty permit it? Would information technology kill off any developer need to build native Windows apps? In that location were many questions around doing this internally.

In June 2022, The Verge reported on an internal electronic mail sent out to employees that detailed its plans effectually the Andromeda project. Microsoft called the device "new and disruptive" every bit, at the time, no foldable phones existed. However, a week subsequently ZDNet reported that Microsoft had shelved the Andromeda projection entirely. It was no longer happening anytime presently.

Andromeda is dead, or is it?

The study echoed similar concerns I was hearing from sources in May, around Andromeda'due south trouble with not having whatever apps. This actually was a big trouble for the Andromeda projection as a whole. No thing how astonishing Windows was on Andromeda, if information technology had no apps, it might every bit well non transport. A pocketable mobile device, of any kind, needs apps.

Interestingly, fifty-fifty with this report challenge the device to be dead, I heard from some sources that Andromeda was notwithstanding being worked on. Confusingly, withal, I besides had sources telling me that the projection was indeed expressionless. This was further confirmed when I learned that Andromeda Os had been deprecated. If in that location's no Os for Andromeda, how can the project even so be alive? It was at this point that I gave in and assumed the projection really was expressionless.

Afterwards in 2022, now and so, I'd receive tidbits of information detailing pocket-size changes to the Andromeda hardware. It was credible that the Andromeda hardware was still being worked on, fifty-fifty though the projection itself had been deemed expressionless past and then many others. Why would Microsoft continue to work on Andromeda if information technology was dead? This was a question that I couldn't figure out an answer to.

2019

Every bit 2022 rolled effectually, my focus had moved over from Andromeda to Centaurus. I had heard about Centaurus in belatedly 2022, and it was described to me as a larger Andromeda running a version of Windows Core Os known as Windows Lite. The general consensus here was that Microsoft had shifted gears from Andromeda to Centaurus, every bit Centaurus was larger and, as such, could be positioned as a PC with PC apps.

In May 2022, whispers around Microsoft doing an Android telephone started making its way through the Microsoft bloggersphere. Mary-Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott were the first to particular such plans on Windows Weekly, however the idea seemed and then ludicrous that no one wanted to write information technology upwards. Why would Microsoft want to brand an Android phone?

It appears that in the fall of 2022, Microsoft decided to swap out Windows in favor of Android on Andromeda. This was a motion very few of usa saw coming. It's obvious now, just at the time nosotros all assumed an Android smartphone by Microsoft would be a traditional slab of glass. Even though I connected to hear that Andromeda was beingness worked on, I never in one case made the connection between the Android rumor and Andromeda.

In October, those 2 things would finally come together spectacularly as the most surprising Microsoft proclamation e'er. Microsoft had decided to accept the Andromeda hardware and slap Android on it, solving the app gap problem in 1 fell dive. Known as the Surface Duo, this is the first pocketable Surface, that's also a telephone, and it's finally official.

Thoughts?

So that's a non-and then-brief look into the journeying we've taken together with Andromeda. Information technology's been a rollercoaster for sure, a device that started out every bit the future of Windows on mobile became a device with Android instead. I recall this is an excellent pick for Microsoft, as it's the only realistic mode Microsoft can make a phone in 2022. Windows has no ecosystem on phones, and as such, Android is the only way forward in this department.

What are your thoughts? Let u.s.a. know in the comments.

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