Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR An upcoming Android update will significantly upgrade the Linux Terminal app, enabling it to run full-fledged graphical Linux programs on supported devices.
The feature is currently experimental, requiring a Pixel 6 or newer on a specific Android Canary build and manual steps to enable both the terminal and hardware acceleration for better performance.
This guide details how to install and run graphical apps like GIMP or LibreOffice using Flatpak, either by launching them manually or by setting up a complete desktop environment like XFCE.
The Linux Terminal app is set for some major upgrades in an upcoming Android release. If you’re unfamiliar, the Terminal app lets you run full-fledged Linux programs in a virtual machine, opening the door to running many powerful tools that aren’t natively available on Android. Initially, the Terminal app was limited to running command-line applications, but a recent Android update introduced support for graphical apps. Despite some lingering issues, we were surprised by how capable it already is. If you’re interested in trying this out, here’s how to get started.
First of all, you’ll need to have a Pixel 6 or later running the latest 2507 Android Canary release, as this is currently the only public build with support for running graphical Linux apps. While the second quarterly release of Android 16 (QPR2) might introduce this feature more broadly, we won’t know for sure until the public beta arrives.
Because this capability is not in the stable version of Android 16, other devices will have to wait. It’s possible some non-Pixel devices will receive it in the Android 16 QPR2 update, but it’s more likely to arrive as part of next year’s Android 17 release.
To see what’s possible, check out this video of several desktop Linux apps running on a Pixel:
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