New Chromebooks To Run Android Apps

Google says every Chromebook released from now on will run Android apps. Whether that boosts sales depends on why people weren’t buying Chromebooks.

At the moment, only three Chromebooks support Android apps. However, Google has not only announced Android support for all new models, but also that 60 existing models will be updated with the support. It will then look at other existing models to see if their specs mean they can be added to the list.

Using the apps should be relatively simple: users simply use the settings menu to sign into the Google Play Store, which then gives them access to the Android apps. One downside is that they’ll have to manually select which to download, even if they’ve previously installed them on an Android phone or tablet. Another is that not all the apps in the store will be compatible and some may lack normal features (such as downloads in Netflix.)

There is a risk of some confusion as there’ll be some Android apps that are also available as native Chrome apps, which generally will be the better option for a Chromebook.

It may be something of a workaround given there’s plenty of speculation that Google’s long-term plan is to merge Chrome OS and Android into a single system that works across all computing devices.