Google Play Store coming to Chrome OS?

I recently acquired a Lenovo N21 Chromebook, and it's proving to be a much better device for carrying around my house then my Sager LOL. Anyway, here is a story that just came out about the possibility of the Google Play Store supporting Chrome OS. This would be a great thing for these devices. Having access to the full Android versions of MS Office would be a great boost to my productivity, rather than having to rely on the web versions as I would now. Further, if I could quickly and easily load up emulators, the Chromebook would become a nice portable retro gaming device.

The only major issue I can foresee is storage, since most Chromebooks only come with 16 GB on board. This might lead some companies to create more models with 32 GB or more of space, causing prices to increase, thereby negating some of the advantage these devices have. Still, this development would absolutely be a net positive.

 

An update on this:



http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2016/05/bring-your-android-app-to-chromebooks.html

https://chrome.googleblog.com/2016/05/the-google-play-store-coming-to.html

 

I'm really excited about this and wanting to sell my T100 and get a chromebook.

I'm just wondering about light productivity on chromeOS vs Android.

 

If we could get Skype on ChromeOS, it would be the perfect computer for my parents. All they need is a web browser and Skype to talk with their grandkids.

 

http://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose...via-a-web-browser-without-downloading-an-app/

 

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to work so well. See the below video.

It seems that the Android version of Skype will work just fine on a Chromebook. Here's a video showing off some of the early capabilities, and it's surprisingly well integrated. The overall experience still needs refinement, but so far so good.

 

Any chance this comes to the independent Chrome application as well?

 

Most likely, no.

 

- GOOGLE ANNOUNCES ALL UPCOMING CHROMEBOOKS WILL SUPPORT ANDROID APPS -

ChromeUnboxed:

Google has officially announced that Chromebooks released in 2017 and after will all be compatible with Android Apps in the “coming future.” No news on when the Play Store will be making its way to the Stable channel but we still anticipate seeing some, if not all devices on the list gaining access with the release of Chrome OS 56 around the end of this month. read more..


The Chromium Projects:

All Chromebooks launching in 2017 and after - will work with Android apps at a time to be announced in the future. read more..

 

Just like to add that most Chromebooks in 2016 also will support Android, if they don't already do on the stable, beta or dev channel.

Google has a giant list of Chromebooks waiting to be approved for Android this year.

It is going to be great!

 

I agree!

 

The Google Play Store is almost available on all Chromebooks when in Dev mode and using the shell to enter the following commands:

Code:

shell
sudo su
cp /etc/chrome_dev.conf /usr/local/
mount --bind /usr/local/chrome_dev.conf /etc/chrome_dev.conf
echo "--arc-availability=officially-supported " >> /etc/chrome_dev.conf
restart ui

edit: copy and paste, as the shell supports several lines at once, and only the restart ui is a executing command that does a specific working action.

 

Today Google made an update to the list of Chromebooks that will be getting the play store.

Nothing much new though. This is taking way too long considering they said "end of 2016 / early 2017".

Spoiler: List of Chromebooks to get android support

Stable channel

• Acer Chromebook R11 (CB5-132T, C738T)
• AOpen Chromebox Mini
• AOpen Chromebase Mini
• Asus Chromebook Flip C100PA
• Google Chromebook Pixel (2015)
• Samsung Chromebook Plus

Beta channel

• Acer Chromebook R13 (CB5-312T)
• Asus Chromebook Flip C302

Planned

• Acer Chromebook 11 (C740)
• Acer Chromebook 11 (C730 / CB3-111 / C730E / CB3-131)
• Acer Chromebook 14 (CB3-431)
• Acer Chromebook 14 for Work (CB5-471)
• Acer Chromebook 15 (CB5-571 / C910)
• Acer Chromebook 15 (CB3-531)
• Acer Chromebook 15 (CB3-532)
• Acer Chromebook Spin 11 (R751T)
• Acer Chromebox CXI2
• Acer Chromebase 24
• AOpen Chromebox CommercialAOpen Chromebase Commercial
• Asus Chromebit CS10
• Asus Chromebook C200
• Asus Chromebook C201PA
• Asus Chromebook C202SA
• Asus Chromebook C300
• Asus Chromebook C300SA / C301SA
• Asus Chromebook Flip C213
• Asus Chromebox CN62
• Bobicus Chromebook 11
• CTL J2 / J4 Chromebook
• CTL N6 Education Chromebook
• CTL J5 Convertible Chromebook
• CTL NL61 Chromebook
• Dell Chromebook 11 (3120)
• Dell Chromebook 11 (3180)
• Dell Chromebook 11 Convertible (3189)
• Dell Chromebook 13 (7310)
• Dell Chromebook 13 (3380)
• eduGear Chromebook R Series
• eduGear Chromebook K Series
• eduGear Chromebook M Series
• eduGear CMT Chromebook
• Edxis Chromebook
• Edxis Education Chromebook
• Haier Chromebook 11
• Haier Chromebook 11e
• Haier Chromebook 11 G2
• Haier Chromebook 11 C
• Hexa Chromebook Pi
• HiSense Chromebook 11
• Lava Xolo Chromebook
• HP Chromebook 11 G3
• HP Chromebook 11 G4 / G4 EE
• HP Chromebook 11 G5
• HP Chromebook 11 G5 EE
• HP Chromebook 14 G4
• HP Chromebook 13 G1
• HP Chromebook x360 11 G1 EE
• Lenovo 100S Chromebook
• Lenovo N20 / N20P Chromebook
• Lenovo N21 Chromebook
• Lenovo N22 Chromebook
• Lenovo N23 Chromebook
• Lenovo N23 Yoga Chromebook
• Lenovo N42 Chromebook
• Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Chromebook
• Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Yoga Chromebook
• Lenovo Thinkpad 11e Chromebook (Gen 3)
• Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Yoga Chromebook (Gen 3)
• Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Chromebook (Gen 4)
• Lenovo Thinkpad 11e Yoga Chromebook (Gen 4)
• Lenovo Thinkpad 13 Chromebook
• Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox
• Medion Chromebook Akoya S2013
• Medion Chromebook S2015
• M&A Chromebook
• NComputing Chromebook CX100
• Nexian Chromebook 11.6"
• PCMerge Chromebook PCM-116E
• PCMerge Chromebook PCM-116T-432B
• Poin2 Chromebook 11
• Samsung Chromebook Pro
• Samsung Chromebook 2 11" - XE500C12
• Samsung Chromebook 3
• Sector 5 E1 Rugged Chromebook
• Senkatel C1101 Chromebook
• Toshiba Chromebook 2
• Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2015)
• True IDC Chromebook 11
• Viglen Chromebook 11
• Viglen Chromebook 360

Spoiler: Source url

https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-supporting-android-apps

In other news, they've been making improvements to casting, notifications, cursor size, dark mode, pin unlock, and a new transparent taskbar. Hopefully they will improve VPN support.

 

This is why I like VPN.ac. They have a Chrome extension that allows you to connect to their service. Just enter your user name, password, and preferred server location, and you're good to go. You can even set up a whitelist to exclude specific sites from using the proxy tunnel. Very convenient.