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Chrome OS Can Now Run Android Apps With No Porting Required

Posted by timothy on from the that-could-be-big dept.

An anonymous reader writes On Thursday, Google launched "App Runtime for Chrome (Beta)" which allows Android apps to run on Chrome OS without the need for porting. At the moment, only Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine are available on the platform with the rest of the Play Store's offerings to come later. Google "built an entire Android stack into Chrome OS using Native Client" in order to achieve this.

7 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wow by Teresita · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That makes my little Chromebox that much more awesome. Redmond be very afraid.

  2. Why not all apps at once? by bogaboga · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google launched "App Runtime for Chrome (Beta)" which allows Android apps to run on Chrome OS without the need for porting. At the moment, only Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine are available on the platform with the rest of the Play Store's offerings to come later.

    I wonder why all apps aren't available at once. I understand this App Runtime for Chrome akin to the Java RunTime, which when installed, would have all Java applications available. What am I [mis]understanding?

    1. Re:Why not all apps at once? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Even if it were perfect, almost no ChromeOS devices have touchscreens and almost all Android devices do (especially if you count on the ones Google even slightly endorses, not the media-player-mystery-HDMI-dongle stuff). For applications that are basically hobbled by the touchscreen, a keyboard and mouse will be an improvement. For those that are enhanced by, or actively dependent on, it, that will be a bit of a mess no matter how perfect the runtime is.

      Unless those proportions change fairly markedly, it probably makes sense for them to start with some popular, mouse and keyboard friendly, applications that don't lean on native ARM blobs much or at all.

    2. Re:Why not all apps at once? by Guspaz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Some points here:

      - Most Android apps are Java bytecode, not native code, so the underlying processor architecture is irrelevant (for those apps)
      - x86 is a supported Android platform, so many apps that do require native code have x86 binaries available
      - Intel provides an ARM emulator for the x86 version of Android so that x86 Android devices can run ARM binaries
      - Some ChromeOS devices use ARM processors to begin with.

  3. Re:Why not just run Chrome on Android on Chromeboo by msobkow · · Score: 5, Funny

    So your friend's husband bought a web-connected device, knowing fully well that they live in a rural area with shitty web connections?

    What your you going to complain about next? Not being able to tow semi-trailers with your Yugo?

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  4. Re:Android by wiredlogic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They aren't being used by students because they need to be able to run general purpose software. They are bought by budget minded people who only need a web browser and web apps to use a computer which is the case for most non-technical people these days.

    --
    I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
  5. Never failed before by Sun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, OS/2 running Windows apps was a huge push forward for IBM. Wine completely changed the Linux desktop picture, and BSD's Linux binary compatibility made it an effective super set of Linux, to the point nobody bothers to install the later (not to mention the similar capability of SCO Unix: they wouldn't be where they are today without it).

    I hear that ChromOS is a nice platform and is doing well. I'm glad, in a "diversity is good" non-committed sort of way. I don't think this particular feature will change much.

    Shachar