Continuing its rather slow-paced expansion, Google has announced the addition of seven existing Android apps to the Chrome OS‘s supported roster. These Android apps, with very little to no change in their source code, will be able to run on any Chrome OS device, making it accessible from any device you might have at hand. Provided, of course, it’s a Google device.
At this year’s Google I/O, Google revealed that while it will keep its Android and Chrome platforms separate, it will slowly bridge the gap between the two. Part of that effort is to provide support for running Android apps on Chrome via a new Android Runtime for Chrome or ARC. This means that app developers will no longer have to work on multiple versions of the app, one for Android and one for Chrome, and just use the Android version for both. The only downside is that ARC is pretty much still an exclusive party and Google is slowly adding to that list.
For this round, there are seven new apps, three of which Google highlights for the holidays. Cookpad Recipes can help you create perfect Thanksgiving menu. Couchsurfing helps you to plan your out of town holiday trip. Overdrive, on the other hand, will keep you company with ebooks should you decide to stay inside instead. These apps join Evernote, Duolingo, Vine, and Sight Words, which were the first to come to the party last September.
Of course, since this touches on Android apps, you can expect some of the modding and developer community to step in and expand that roster. Already you can run some unofficially supported Android apps on Chrome OS, though you will have to jump through hoops to get there and forgo using some of those official apps. And you might not even need to have a Chrome OS device, as another hack lets you do the same on any Chrome browser.
SOURCE: Google
I just tried Overdrive application on a Chromebook. While it is functional, it lacks so much in resolution that I don’t feel like using it. Can Google consider a default resolution on Chromebooks while porting these apps?
So there’s really only 3 new ones. 7 total. Sort of confusing how you worded that.
This is taking way too long. I get that it’s a lot of work making sure that everything will work; but as much publicity as this has gotten, I expected them to be farther along than this.