Google’s Chrome OS Secret Weapon Includes Impending Support For Play Store And Android Apps

We reported on a leak last month that suggested that Google's Chrome OS would finally be gaining support for the company's Play Store, hinting that it's a feature that could be announced at the company's I/O conference. Well, as it happens, the company did confirm the feature at I/O, but surprisingly, it didn't make a big deal out of it.

The fact that Google didn't raise its trumpet to announce this feature is a bit strange, as it's something most Chrome OS users would have been happy to see long ago. It could have been simply pulled from the keynote due to time, which is suggested by the fact that a session description claims that it was properly announced:

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!

We can't help but wonder how many people kicked themselves for not reading the tail end of that description!

It should be stressed that this feature isn't available right now, but that it's coming. Based on the description above, it looks like some developers will have to tweak their apps slightly if they want it to run flawlessly on a Chromebook, so Google will need to allow time for that.

Ultimately, Play Store on Chrome OS is coming, and that's a great thing.