Android apps will run on Chrome OS, Windows Mac OS

By | April 26, 2016

Run Android Apps on Windows, MAC OS and LINUXIt seems that Google may unleash full Google play Store access on their Chrome line of products.

Google play Store will allow you to run more than a million Android apps on your Chromebook at first, expanding such functionality then into Windows, Mac OS and Linux based computers, available through their Chrome web navigator.

This comes not as a complete surprise: The working concept was already kind of there, already embedded and available on Chrome OS for a year or so, but -very- limited:

Some time ago Google started a project called “App Runtime for Chrome” (ARC). They closely worked with a few selected Android developers, allowing for a handful of selected apps to emerge on their Chrome Web Store, as some kind of “proof of concept”.

Some users at reddit are discussing this partially hidden, still “under construction” new feature, included in Google’s latest Chrome OS release for chromebooks.

When will Android apps run on Windows, MAC OS and Linux ?

Surely Google will unveil some details on GOOGLE I/O event this year. The only information emerging on the Internet at this time comes from some power users that got curious over this new development and started peeking and poking inside Chrome OS code.

They found some text strings and coding already in place that surely supports this new Google Play Store compatibility:

<message name="IDS_ARC_OPT_IN_DIALOG_DESCRIPTION" desc="Description of the opt-in dialog for Android apps.">
Choose from over a million apps and games on Google Play to install and use on your <ph name="DEVICE_TYPE">$1<ex>Chromebook</ex></ph>.
</message>

Maybe Google will also include Chrome extensions and Themes into their Google Play Store offerings, effectively replacing the -by now oldish and somewhat neglected- Chrome Web Store.

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