Google has finally confirmed that Android apps are coming to Chrome OS, as per earlier reports. The company has not officially announced this latest development but a session description on its website confirms the same.
9to5Google has spotted a session description that reads,
Today we announced that we’re adding the best mobile app experiences in the world, Android apps and the Google Play store, to the best browser in the world, Chrome! Come to this session and test your Android apps for Chrome OS. You will get hands on help from our friendly engineers on how to optimize your Android app for Chromebooks. Oh, and we will also be giving the first 50 developers to show up a free Chromebook so they can get a head start bringing their apps to Chrome!
Google is expected to make the official announcement at today’s session of the I/O developer conference. With the new feature, Chromebooks will soon be able to access Androids apps and Play Store. It must be noted that Android apps for the desktop can be accessed via the Play Store and developers won’t have to add them to the Chrome Web Store. Currently, a bunch of Android apps like Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine already run on Chromebooks due to App Runtime for Chrome (ARC).
In October 2015 WSJ report stated that Google plans to merge its Chrome OS with Android. It is expected that the new single OS will be launched in 2017, although an early build could be revealed by 2016. The number of apps on Chrome Web Store is currently limited and hence the addition of Android apps will be a welcome move that will result in better productivity for Chromebook users.