It was first expected that Samsung’s much rumored first Tizen powered smartphone will be released by the end of 2014. That didn’t happen and we heard whispers that the Z1 would instead make its way to the market in early 2015. Latest reports suggest that the Samsung Z1 may be launched tomorrow, and that it may even have the ability to run Android apps, even though it will be powered by Tizen.
Just yesterday images of WhatsApp running on the Samsung Z1 were leaked online, lending weight to speculation that perhaps this cross-platform messaging service will come pre-installed on Samsung’s Tizen smartphone.
Tizen doesn’t have official support for Android applications but by using the OpenMobile Application Compatibility Layer it can be possible to run those apps. ACL will be available for this smartphone is launched in the Tizen app store.
Once ACL is installed running Android apps will be as easy as downloading them from the Tizen store. The folks at Tizen Experts have put together a video which shows the entire procedure, and the accompanying report states that the performance of these apps will be similar to that of Android devices and that over one thousand Android apps will be available at launch.
Certainly the amount of apps available for Tizen will be significantly less than those for Android so this will be a good way for Tizen users to bridge the app-gap on their own.