GoKawiiltl,dr: How Collabora partnered with the YouTube Cobalt and Device Partner Engineering teams to deliver the first RDK-based reference platform for their next-generation living room web engine.
Switch on your Smart TV, open YouTube, and navigate to Settings → App Version, you might spot a version text like 25.lts . That’s the version of classic Cobalt, the lightweight, open source HTML5/CSS/JavaScript engine meant specifically for resource-constrained embedded devices, which currently runs YouTube on living room devices such as SmartTVs, STBs, etc.
Over the years, Cobalt has undergone a massive architectural transformation: the transition from classic Cobalt to Chrobalt, (Cobalt re-architected on top of Chromium).
At Collabora, as we continue our journey to accelerate, collaborate, and adopt open source, we have been working closely with Google's YouTube Cobalt and Partner Engineering teams to deliver the first-ever RDK-based Chrobalt reference platform for third-party devices, proving this major architectural evolution for device partners and OEMs worldwide.
The Shift: From Cobalt to Chrobalt
Historically, running a full-fledged browser engine like Chromium on low-power set-top boxes (STBs) and Smart TVs was out of the question due to tight RAM and CPU constraints. Google built Cobalt from the ground up to solve this exact problem, offering a minimal web standards subset optimized for media streaming and lean resource consumption. Cobalt interfaced with hardware platforms through an abstraction layer called Starboard, allowing OEMs and SoC vendors to port YouTube to custom silicon.
However, maintaining an independent layout and rendering engine alongside the rapidly evolving modern web ecosystem is a massive undertaking.
To bridge this gap, Google initiated a bold engineering effort: Merge Cobalt’s code with Chromium to get a robust, standard-compliant rendering pipeline.
The result is Chrobalt (starting with 26.eap and recently updated to 27.lts , tracking modern Chromium milestones like 138+ ). Now Chrobalt is a Chromium embedder with a Starboard porting layer.
Thus Chrobalt combines the best of both worlds:
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