Google Chrome OS Might Be Run All Android Apps From Play Store
According to posts on Reddit, Google's Chrome OS will soon run all Android apps from the Play Store, which discovered a new setting in Chromebooks.
A Reddit user by the name The WiseYoda posted the screenshots on the website, where one of the settings options permits a user to run Android apps from the Play Store. The setting incidentally disappeared after a few seconds, but source code from Github and Chromium also seems to confirm that an upcoming setting will allow users run these apps.
The appearance of the setting doesn't come as much of a surprise given that Google has spent the past couple of years bringing Chrome and Android OS closer together. At the end of 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company would consolidate the two operating systems as early as this year. If today's news is anything to go by, Google may simply participate the useful features from every OS instead.
The specific version of Chrome OS in which this feature performs is only presented in the Developer Channel at the moment, and those who have been able to allow it say that it only shows a tutorial before automatically closing, but it appears that the feature is in the works as Google gears up for its I/O conference next month.
Google first started creating Android apps — including Evernote, Vine, and Duolingo — available on Chrome OS back in 2014, as part of a limited trial that was extended in April the next year with the wider launch of the App Runtime for Chrome (ARC) Welder app.
In spite of declarations in the past that the two OS would be kept separate, this change would be good news for Chrome OS users, who may soon get access to a greater and better store than the one they are used to. Google Play has more software, accepts payment in more countries, and has had better support than its Chrome OS cousin over the past few years.
As per the report, Google engineers have been working on the plan for the last two years and the new single OS will be introduced in 2017 while an early build could be discovered by 2016. It also said that the new version will give Chromebook users access to the Play Store, and based on the latest screenshots this could happen really soon.
Google announced two budget Chromebooks in May last year in India, rated at Rs 12,999 each, which were manufactured by Nexian and Xolo.