My phone is more than a phone now.

Google is testing new tools in Android's Linux Terminal so users can choose between image quality and performance.

Chris Thomas was a reporter at Android Police from 2022 until 2025. Android is, at its heart, based on the Linux operating system’s kernel. It is heavily modified in many ways, and in practice, an ...

Android 17 QPR1 Beta 1 introduces theme support for the Linux Terminal app, allowing users to import custom Alacritty (.toml) ...

They're barely in the same league ...

Google is developing another Linux terminal app. The app runs a full Debian environment. Developers will be able to build Android apps on device. For some time, Android has had access to a terminal ...

Nathan is a tech journalist from Canada who spends too much money on gadgets. You can find his work on Android Police, Digital Trends, iMore, Mobile Syrup and ZDNET. Nathan studied journalism at ...

What just happened? For all the native apps and tools available on platforms like Chrome OS, sometimes you just need a good old Linux program to get things done, especially if you are a developer.

The key to this change is a new terminal app that uses the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF). With this app, users can run Linux commands on their Android device through a virtual machine (VM).

I test Android phones for a living, but I write about them using a company-supplied MacBook Air. Both platforms are great in their own right, but they’re not so great at talking ...