So, why is Google so interested in combining Android apps and Chrome OS?
Advertisement
Google’s Chrome OS, which is essentially a browser running on a desktop PC had been long rumoured to get support for Android apps. You can at least slide the split up and down to give one app more screen space, something that was missing in older builds.
That decision might seem a bit odd, since the first-gen Chromebook Pixel has a touchscreen display and a faster processor than many more recent Chrome OS products.
Select Chromebooks will start receiving Android apps in June. Google says Android apps will be SoC agnostic – they’ll work fine on either Arm or Intel-based hardware – and that it will begin pushing for more premium Chromebook hardware because of this development.
Google’s Play Store for Android will be coming this fall to Chrome OS, the lightweight operating system that powers Chromebook laptops, the company announced today. “Because there’s only so much you can do in terms of immersiveness and interactivity with – let’s be serious – a piece of cardboard, and a phone that was really only meant to be a phone”. It will also integrate popular Google apps such as YouTube, Street View, Play Movies and the Play store in the autumn. As for developers, the time is now – they can begin optimizing their apps ahead of the official launch. Imagine writing your term paper on your Chromebook using Microsoft Word for Android while posting photo updates on Snapchat.
Last month thanks to a screenshot, it was hinted that Google could soon allow Android apps to run on Chrome OS.
With this, Android devices will now be able to install OTA updates in the background, so that users will not have to get them installed separately after downloading.
Advertisement
After a couple of leaks, including one from Google’s own I/O schedule, support for Android apps on Chrome OS has been made officially official.
