Google is encouraging developers to convert existing Chrome apps into web apps that can be used across platforms.
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Another reason? It seems like most people weren’t really using them anyway: Google says about 1 percent of the people using Chrome on Windows, Mac, or Linux are regularly using Chrome Packaged Apps.
Google’s blog post announcing the change suggests that part of the reason for killing Chrome apps is that they’re increasingly unnecessary: fully web-based apps can now do numerous things that packaged apps were good at, such as sending notifications, connecting to your computer’s webcam or other hardware, or downloading data so you can use the apps even when you’re offline. In late 2016, new Chrome web apps will only be displayed to users onChrome OS devices, and not via Chrome on Windows (or Mac or Linux). Because they’re relatively cheap and easy to track and manage, Chromebooks has made inroads in businesses and educational institutions.
While some users might be annoyed by this change, it doesn’t sound like Chrome will lose much in the way of functionality, and the long runway for shutting down the platform means users will easily be able to adjust their workflows. It previously killed the Chrome App Launcher that first debuted with Chrome web apps back in early 2013, and the Chrome notification center. There’s another type of Chrome apps, hosted apps, that Google says are already implimented as standard web apps.
Chrome Apps for the most part started out as simple bookmarks that would bring users to web services. But Chrome OS still has a big shortcoming compared to Windows and macOS: an app gap.
The phase-out gives developers about a year and a half to figure out how to migrate their applications away from the Chrome browser.
Chrome apps will remain supported on Chrome OS however for the “foreseeable future”. The company suggests that developers who can not migrate their apps to the web fully help Google prioritize new APIs to “fill the gaps left by Chrome apps”.
And Google promises that “additional enhancements to the Chrome apps platform” are on the way.
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“We want to leave it to developers to build what makes sense for them based on their user base and their development stack”, a Google spokesperson told VentureBeat.
