Android 7.1 apps will finally soon be supported on the Chrome OS

By Christian de Looper January 11, 2017

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Chrome — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Chrome OS has supported Android apps for a while now, which has marked a massive change for the operating system. Despite the fact that the hardware of Chromebooks can handle Android apps, the software seems to be lagging behind a little. Thankfully, that is about to change.

To date, Android apps that run on Chrome OS have had to be based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, basically meaning that they have to follow certain guidelines as to what they can and cannot do. There are, however, a few big difference between apps based on Marshmallow and apps based on Android 7.0 Nougat.

Perhaps the biggest difference between Marshmallow and Nougat is that Nougat brings the ability to resize apps, as well as support for multiple windows. What that means is that apps can act much more like they would on a computer — you can have a few windowed apps open at once, just like you would be able to on Windows or MacOS.

An update to reflect the new feature is currently rolling out to the experimental Canary channel of Chrome OS. According to a post from 9to5Google, it doesn’t seem as though the update to Chrome OS is showing up for everyone using the Canary channel just yet. If you’re using a Chrome OS device, hold tight — your update should be on its way soon. It’s expected that the update will roll out to consumers toward the end of January. The news first broke in a report from Chrome Unboxed, which also published these screenshots:

chrome os android 7 apps 1

chrome os android 7 apps 2

Still, there are a few other great features that could really solidify Android apps on Chrome OS — the most notable being that Chrome OS needs the Google Play Store.

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Christian de Looper

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Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…

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