Canonical is best known as the company behind Ubuntu, one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions. Canonical already offers many products for enterprise customers, from a lightweight OS for Internet-of-Things devices to cloud-based containers, and now it's working on a way to stream Android apps and games from the cloud.

Anbox Cloud, as Canonical calls it, is designed to run Android games and applications on servers using LXD system containers. The apps can then be streamed to other devices, regardless of platform or form factor. "Use cases for Anbox Cloud include cloud gaming, enterprise workplace applications, software testing, and mobile device virtualization," Canonical wrote in a blog post.

Anbox Cloud is also being touted as a great tool for developers, giving them the ability to instantly emulate "thousands of Android devices" with support for continuous integration pipelines. While it's already possible to create virtualized copies of Android phones using the emulator in Android Studio, Anbox won't require downloading large system images or a powerful PC.

Other promised features include support for both x86 and ARM emulation, GPU acceleration, and a low cost to enterprise customers. While I don't think we'll see a Google Stadia-like platform for streaming Android games, this could be a valuable tool to companies already heavily invested in Android-based tools.

Source: Ubuntu Blog