Google Play Store, Android apps are coming to Chrome

Earlier several reports indicated that Google plans to merge its Chrome OS with Android, and recently in the developer version of ChromeOS there was an option to run Android apps on it. Now Google has confirmed that it bring Android apps and Google Play Store to Chrome OS. The announcement was not official, but was spotted in session description on the I/O event website that confirms Android apps are coming to Chrome OS. The description reads, 

"Today we announced that we’re adding the best mobile app experiences in the world, Android apps and the Google Play store, to the best browser in the world, Chrome! Come to this session and test your Android apps for Chrome OS. You will get hands on help from our friendly engineers on how to optimize your Android app for Chromebooks. Oh, and we will also be giving the first 50 developers to show up a free Chromebook so they can get a head start bringing their apps to Chrome!" 

The description suggests that developers will have to tweak their Android apps, in order to make them run on Chromebooks. With the new feature, Chromebooks will soon be able to get access to Play Store and download Android apps. Note that Android apps for desktops can be accessed via Play Store and developers won;t have to add them to Chrome Web Store. Currently a couple of Android apps like Duolingo, Evernote, Sight words and Vine are able to run on Chromebooks thanks to App Runtime for Chrome (ARC).

Google is expected to make the official announcement at today’s “Bring your Android app to Chrome OS” session of the I/O developer conference. 

Via