Google Bringing Android Apps to Chromebooks

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Google's two popular operating systems, Android and Chrome OS, soon will run the same apps.

On Thursday, Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., said the Google Play app store will soon be able to install Android apps on Chromebook laptops as well as on the lesser-known Chromebase all-in-one computers, Chromebox desktops and computer-in-a-stick Chromebits.

In a blog post, Dylan Reid and Elijah Taylor, a pair of Chrome OS software engineers, said Chrome OS users have been asking Google for more and better apps. Rather than push for more Web apps, Google decided to add Android app compatibility. Google Play has more than 1 million Android apps and games currently available for download.

"You'll be able to download and use Android apps, so you can make a Skype call, work with Office files and be productive offline -- or take a break with games such as Minecraft, Hearthstone or Clash of Clans," Reid and Taylor wrote in the post. "The same apps that run on phones and tablets can now run on Chromebooks without compromising their speed, simplicity or security."

This move doesn't mean all Android apps will suddenly look great and work well on a laptop with a trackpad and no touch screen, for instance. People will have to think about their systems before they download apps, especially ones that they can't try out for free.

By mid-June, Android apps on Chrome OS will be available to developers on three Chromebooks: the Asus Chromebook Flip, the Acer Chromebook R 11 and the latest Google Chromebook Pixel. Android apps will be widely available on more than 60 other Chrome OS computers later this year.

Write to Nathan Olivarez-Giles at Nathan.Olivarez-giles@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 19, 2016 16:41 ET (20:41 GMT)

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