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Google Play Store and Over a Million Android Apps Coming To Chromebooks (arstechnica.com)

Posted by msmash on from the desktop-and-mobile-uniformity dept.

It's official: the Google Play Store is coming to Chrome OS. The company announced on Thursday that it is bringing more than 1.5 million Android apps to Chromebooks. Google adds that zero efforts are required from developers' end for their Android apps to function on Chrome OS. Users will also be able to see notifications and have in-line replies on the desktop. Users on developer channel builds of Chrome OS will get an option to use Google Play and Android apps starting early next month. Regular users on select Chromebook models will have this feature in September. Ars Technica has tons of more details about it. The Verge says Android apps are just what Chromebooks needed.

48 comments

  1. yay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now Chromebook owners can know the joys of downloading free boobies apps from Ching Chong Ding Dong that spam their social media accounts. I can't wait.

  2. Write once, equally shitty everywhere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *nm*

  3. Great by AlphaBro · · Score: 0

    Perfect, shovelware for my neutered laptop. Excellent. Amazing. Brilliant.

    1. Re:Great by NIGGERpenisgoodPENIS · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Perfect, shovelware for my neutered laptop. Excellent. Amazing. Brilliant.

      They're really not bad once you put linux on them.

      --
      Learn to laugh at our differences. It's better than fighting over them.
    2. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      full featured laptops are neutered due to all popular means of communication requiring a cellphone for verification, which you can only verify for one instance of an app. Want to talk to friends over whatsapp on a computer? Better have your phone with you so you can use the web client.

      All this will work itself out in a few years when whatsapp etc. just become a client for a new open standard, that allows all computers/cellphones/toasters to communicate as equals.

    3. Re:Great by AlphaBro · · Score: 1

      Two-factor auth is hardly analogous to a scaled down laptop that's locked down and intended to be a thin client for the cloud. The former is an effort to improve user experience, the latter a power grab.

    4. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > the latter a power grab.

      Did it download itself to your computer and force you to run Android apps?

      No? I thought not.

    5. Re:Great by AlphaBro · · Score: 1

      I'm talking about Chrome OS as a whole. It is most certainly a powergrab in the form of driving users to Google's services using cheap hardware and a locked down OS that they know will only be replaced by a small minority of users. Introducing the Android ecosystem is just more shit stirred into the same soup.

    6. Re:Great by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

      But at least once Android apps are available, it's not all about Google's services. I imagine you can run MSOffice for Android on these as well as any other 3rd party apps. They don't all have to use Google ad delivery services. Maybe you could even use a 3rd party Android web browser.

      In any case, the best thing about this is that it's Nexus-like. No OEM skins, and immediate updates direct from Google. That's certainly an improvement over the morass of different versions on Android cellphones. I wonder how much this is baked into the Chrome browser itself - i.e., will you eventually be able to run Android apps anywhere you can run Chrome. I think that was true of the 'android runtime' for chrome that they toyed with last year, but this sounds different. If nothing else, it'd be nice to be able to debug Android apps in Chrome instead of having to fire up a device emulator.

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
    7. Re: Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You know, some of us actually WANT a $150 thin client in laptop form factor to work with our Google apps account.

      Some of us are intelligent enough to know the limits and downsides to storing data with Google and have the will power to only place nonsensitive data there accordingly.

      Some of us still find Google apps useful even after those limitations are taken into consideration.

      Just because you lack those attributes is no call to insult those of us that have them and choose to make he best use of all of the tools available to us, nor to blankety discard the tools as a whole.

    8. Re:Great by yithar7153 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps it is, but you can install custom firmware, and thus Linux on a lot of Chromebooks.

      See list.

      I'm typing this on a Toshiba Chromebook 2 2015 that's running Void Linux.

  4. I was considering a Chromebook for my wife... by LichtSpektren · · Score: 1

    The only thing my wife needs is a browser (and the occasional casual document editing, which Google Apps can handle). I was strongly considering getting her a Chromebook (specifically the Acer 15) because the performance, battery life and display are quite good for the price, plus it's practically impenetrable to malware, but this news actually wavers me a bit. More stuff ChromeOS has to do means it's slower (keep in mind most Chromebooks have either a smartphone ARM CPU, or the lightweight Intel Celeron), and also it's more prone to malware.

    1. Re:I was considering a Chromebook for my wife... by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 1

      The only thing my wife needs is a browser (and the occasional casual document editing, which Google Apps can handle). I was strongly considering getting her a Chromebook (specifically the Acer 15) because the performance, battery life and display are quite good for the price, plus it's practically impenetrable to malware, but this news actually wavers me a bit. More stuff ChromeOS has to do means it's slower (keep in mind most Chromebooks have either a smartphone ARM CPU, or the lightweight Intel Celeron), and also it's more prone to malware.

      That's also the problem with Chrome books. As long as all you need is that stuff you are OK but the moment you want to do some real work you run into the limitations of Chrome OS. I can see how adding all those Android apps would be a good move for people like my dad who hates tablets and prefers a keyboard but for anybody doing any real work a thin client laptop is completely inadequate even if it has millions of Android apps designed to be used on tablets and mobile devices with all the horrifying UI compromises and awful user experiences that brings with it.

    2. Re:I was considering a Chromebook for my wife... by slack_justyb · · Score: 1

      but for anybody doing any real work a thin client laptop is completely inadequate

      I beg to differ. We have hundreds of Chromebooks deployed that talk to our warehouse management system. They process orders, take mail from clients, move product onto trucks, print VICS bill of ladings, are able to access their dashboards, and so forth. I would say all of that is real work. I get what you are saying and I don't disagree on the finer points like wanting to power through spreadsheets, manage a workflow for 100s of photos, do 3d rendering, etc... But Chromebooks do actually do work. Our warehouses are not the only place where this happens, we've been to some of our customer's manufacturing sites and they use Chromebooks to interact with the SCADA, enter in lab results from QA, and so on. Again, your argument isn't lost here, but what I am saying is that there is still lots of work to be done with thin clients and Chromebooks fit the bill quite nicely.

      I had modpoints but I found out that commenting prevents me from using them, I'd still upvote you because you don't have a completely wrong argument, but it's an incomplete argument at best.

    3. Re:I was considering a Chromebook for my wife... by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      "As long as all you need is that stuff you are OK but the moment you want to do some real work"
      That is also the problems with cars. Once you need to haul a lot of stuff you really need a pickup. And if you really need to haul a lot of stuff you need a Semi!

      Of course that is also the problem with PCs. One you need to get real work done you need something like a workstation class machine with dual Xeons and several Tesla cards.

      Oh wait... A car can do many tasks just fine and will often cost less than a truck...
      And PC can do many tasks just fine and cost a lot less than a workstation class machine...
      So just maybe.....

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    4. Re:I was considering a Chromebook for my wife... by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      As long as all you need is that stuff you are OK but the moment you want to do some real work you run into the limitations of Chrome OS. I can see how adding all those Android apps would be a good move for people like my dad who hates tablets and prefers a keyboard but for anybody doing any real work a thin client laptop is completely inadequate even if it has millions of Android apps designed to be used on tablets and mobile devices with all the horrifying UI compromises and awful user experiences that brings with it.

      If you can truly run any Android application on Chrome OS, then everything you describe isn't at all a limitation of the OS itself (nor is it a limitation of Android.) It's actually just a matter of application developers writing Android applications that take advantage of a larger screen. That's all there really is to it. There's nothing stopping you from having applications equivalent to the desktop counterparts of CAD, quickbooks, photoshop, and any other big name heavy duty productivity application you can name.

      It's likewise idiotic to assume that only Linux and Windows can be productivity OSes, and every other consumer OS can't.

      At the present time, Android only truly exists on small (11" or less) screen devices, so application developers haven't had any motivation to write a full blown productivity application for that platform. However once you start having bigger screens and more input devices, that will change. And having said that, I could easily see Chrome OS breaking the "every PC is a windows machine" paradigm. And no, windows won't break the iOS/Android paradigm on mobile because Microsoft truly did make windows phone kneecapped by design so that only scaled down mobile apps will run on it (their idea has been that if Apple writes a kneecapped toy OS for mobile and succeeds at it, then Microsoft can and should do the same thing, which contrast to Google's "let's always extend the boundaries that developers can cross" mentality.)

    5. Re:I was considering a Chromebook for my wife... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Oh wait... A car can do many tasks just fine and will often cost less than a truck...
      And PC can do many tasks just fine and cost a lot less than a workstation class machine...
      So just maybe.....

      You aren't nearly as clever as you think you are...

  5. I hope this signals a change for local storage by geschbacher79 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Right now, Chromebooks don't have large amounts of local storage ("It belongs in the cloud!"). Hopefully with Android support (with some games running into the gigs) this will push Chromebooks to offer large amounts of storage (64, 128, etc) and basically make these real laptops, instead of cloudy-laptops. This is great news though, especially for Chromebooks with touchscreens.

    1. Re:I hope this signals a change for local storage by LichtSpektren · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Real laptops already exist if you want that. Chromebooks currently serve a nice niche of cheap laptops with great performance if you don't need local apps. I don't see why it would be intelligent to move away from that.

    2. Re:I hope this signals a change for local storage by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      Most Chromebooks also have SD cards slots for storing data locally. This make the lack of storage a non-issue.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    3. Re:I hope this signals a change for local storage by jon3k · · Score: 1

      I just use a $30 128GB tiny thumb drive.

    4. Re:I hope this signals a change for local storage by shawn2772 · · Score: 1

      Chromebooks currently serve a nice niche of cheap laptops with great performance if you don't need local apps.

      Actually, Chromebooks have supported local apps for some time. They're browser-based apps, but they run locally (disconnected) and use local storage.

    5. Re: I hope this signals a change for local storage by mspohr · · Score: 1

      You can put an SD card in the Chromebook for as much storage as you want.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    6. Re:I hope this signals a change for local storage by Solandri · · Score: 1

      I don't think you fully appreciate exactly what's going on here. This is an end run-around of the Windows desktop monopoly. Google is leveraging its Android success to gain a foothold in the desktop (laptop) market.

      If this succeeds, I fully expect Chromebooks to increase in features and quality to match "real" laptops, minus the Windows tax. And the extra attention developers pay to the Android platform should help improve the app market for Android tablets as well. (And those who've been hoping for decades that Linux would displace Windows on the desktop will finally get their wish, though not quite in the way they'd imagined.)

    7. Re:I hope this signals a change for local storage by yithar7153 · · Score: 1

      Most Broadwell Chromebooks use M.2 SSDs, so you can easily buy a new SSD, open up your Chromebook, and put a 256GB drive in there.

  6. Nothing of value was gained by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Android apps are poorly designed, lag in features and quality compared to iOS apps, tend to not receive frequent updates, and are just awful. Getting the Google Play Store is like getting the clap.

    1. Re:Nothing of value was gained by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So what you're saying is that Google Play is like your mom?

  7. sweet!!! by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    my next laptop is going to be a shiney new Chromebook!!!, maybe Santa Clause will buy one for all the kids in the family

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  8. vs. OS X Dashboard by Jodka · · Score: 2

    I am back to developing on Linux after a long stint on OS X and one thing I really miss now is the OS X Dashboard widgets.

    Ubuntu is way behind OS X here, even if they integrated a Dashboard clone the ecosystem of widgets would be far behind and never catch up. But Ubuntu could leapfrog the OS X Dashboard by absorbing Chrome's support for Android widgets into an integrated Dashboard clone.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature.
    1. Re:vs. OS X Dashboard by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I am back to developing on Linux after a long stint on OS X and one thing I really miss now is the OS X Dashboard widgets.

      Isn't that what KDE Plasma is supposed to do? Don't know, never tried it, and have nothing to compare it to. I use just the basics of KDE and find that perfectly ok.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:vs. OS X Dashboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try KDE. It has provided desktop widgets for over a decade.

    3. Re:vs. OS X Dashboard by halivar · · Score: 1

      He's on Ubuntu, which is all in on Gnome. I, myself, am looking for a Hyper-V friendly distro with KDE default and no systemd. Alas, there is none.

    4. Re:vs. OS X Dashboard by jon3k · · Score: 1

      So switch to Kubuntu ?

    5. Re:vs. OS X Dashboard by ncc74656 · · Score: 1

      I, myself, am looking for a Hyper-V friendly distro with KDE default and no systemd. Alas, there is none.

      Gentoo, perhaps? No systemd, whatever desktop you want (if any...there is no default), and while I've never done anything with HyperV, I have Gentoo VMs running in both VirtualBox and VMware ESXi.

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    6. Re:vs. OS X Dashboard by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      He's on Ubuntu, which is all in on Gnome.

      sudo apt-get install plasma-desktop

      Co-exists perfectly well with Gnome. Gnome apps run fine under KDE and vice versa. Select whether you want to boot Gnome or KDE (Plasma) at the login prompt.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    7. Re:vs. OS X Dashboard by halivar · · Score: 1

      I tried out Kubuntu but the base packages gave me a weird error (no customization; I just took default options).

    8. Re:vs. OS X Dashboard by halivar · · Score: 1

      I was a Gentoo "ricer" for years. It was my first pick when I needed a Linux VM. But currently there is no official support for the Linux Hyper-V Integration Services on Gentoo, and the only overlay I could find was out of date.

  9. My wife loves her Chromebook. You don't have to by raymorris · · Score: 2

    My wife loves her Chromebook. Although it is set up to dual boot to Ubuntu, and she's comfortable with Linux, she has never needed it. ChromeOS does everything she wants to do. I was surprised how good the battery life is, too.

    You don't HAVE to run Android apps on it just because you CAN.

  10. Remember, only apps can app apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Appy app apps like App OS and Appdroid can app apps while apping other apps, while LUDDITE systems like LUDDITE Windows can only run LUDDITE software!

    Apps!

  11. Clash of Clans by no1nose · · Score: 1

    Does this mean we will be able to play Clash of Clans on a Chrome book? I know we can use Bluestacks right now, but it is clunky.

    1. Re: Clash of Clans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From TFA: "This means youâ(TM)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 like Minecraft, Hearthstone or Clash of Clans"

  12. On a limited number of Chromebooks by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

    They say the cutoff is ~2 years, but the Chromebook 13 is not supported, despite being a less than 2 year old model and having an ARM processor. Perhaps it's because that processor is only 32 bits, but it still sucks.

    --
    Eat the rich.
    1. Re:On a limited number of Chromebooks by yithar7153 · · Score: 1

      I think manufacturers are choosing which Chromebooks to support and which ones not to support. I actually don't think it's a technical issue.

  13. iso by Threni · · Score: 1

    Last time I looked it wasn't possible to get a Chromebook ISO so I could check it out in a VM. Has anyone had more luck than me?

    1. Re: iso by jsh1972 · · Score: 1

      I had a box a while back set up with chromium, the open source version of chrome, but don't know exactly how close it is to an out of the box Chromebook experience... ran all chrome apps fine, though.

    2. Re:iso by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Check out CloudReady at www.neverware.com. It's a clone of ChromeOS, using the Chromium browser as a base. Have it installed on an old Acer netbook, works great, no issues. Only slightly different from the "official" ChromeOS.