Google is already one behemoth of an employer, and now it’s gotten even bigger. The latest addition to the burgeoning tech family might make it easier for you to play games and other more complex mobile apps on a Chromebook. The small team over at LeapDroid, a game-specializing Android emulator, recently revealed that they would be joining the much larger team at Google.
“Today, we’re excited to announce the next phase of our journey — we are joining Google,” LeapDroid founders Huan Ren and Huihong Luo said. “While it’s too soon to comment on specific plans, we look forward to working with our new colleagues at Google to continue pushing the frontier of technology.”
We are joining Google. See our announcement at https://t.co/exDgOfkfkr for the update and future plan of LeapDroid.
— LeapDroid (@leapdroid) November 5, 2016
It doesn’t look as though the move was a traditional acquisition, as LeapDroid remains “not affiliated” with Google as of press time. But regardless of organizational structure, there are a number of implications associated with LeapDroid’s joining Google. First and foremost, as Engadget points out, the technology could assist Google developers improve Android performance in non-native environments. And this could eventually lead to the marriage of Android and Chrome, which has long been rumored, but has yet to come to fruition. Could LeapDroid be part of the missing link?
As far as how this will affect LeapDroid’s current users, the company notes that “if you have LeapDroid already installed, you can continue to use it.” You can check out the team’s User FAQ should you have any additional questions.
“We want to personally thank the amazing community of Android developers and users who have inspired us since day one,” the founders concluded in a post on their front page. “We’ve been so proud to build LeapDroid, and can’t wait to show you more of what we’ll be working on at Google.”