We’ve word that there are eight more Android applications being prepared for launch on the Chrome OS platform, popularized by the Chromebook laptop. These eight will join the eighteen already available but appear to be the start of something of a rush of Android applications being readied for Google’s other mobile platform. The list of applications should not come as a surprise, especially with the understanding that Google field a number of requests from Android users with what they’d like for the Chrome OS platform. At this juncture we don’t know what eight are being prepared but we know that’s currently undergoing testing, so it’s reasonable to put together a list of applications that we believe are on the way.
One of the applications currently in testing is the Facebook Messenger; Facebook’s answer to Google Hangouts. The Android application’s “floating head” visuals were referenced in testing documentation, although the report has since been redacted. Facebook Messenger could tie in nicely with Facebook Video Calling, which now works on the Chromebook out of the box via the website. Another application wearing the testing hat is Yik Yak, the social networking service that allows people to anonymously create Taks (a short text post), which is available for people to view and reply to inside ten miles. Yik Yak has proven popular with students, as has the Chromebook.
The Rithmunnamed music sharing application is another candidate. Rithm allows users to search for and share short music clips from a variety of sources including SoundCloud and Spotify. These may be bundled up with dancing emoji, videos, drawings and similar stuff and then sent to your chums. Another music application that could be ready to be ported across to Chrome OS is Pandora. This music streaming service entered testing a short time ago and could be an interesting choice for Chrome OS as the Android application supports Chromecast, which Spotify won’t support “any time soon.”
Evernote has been the most popular Android application ported to Chrome OS and it could soon be joined with Skitch, another Evernote application. Skitch has been in the testing stage for several months now and allows users to annotate photographs, and the resulting image may be shared elsewhere. It would be a good companion application to Evernote for Chromebook. Another productivity application is Yelo, the crowd sourced business review and social networking website.
When Google announced that Chrome OS was to be getting Android applications, one of the demonstration applications was Flipboard. This still hasn’t made it to the platform, so I’m putting this forward to the list of applications that might be coming to Chrome OS soon. And my final entry on the list of eight candidates to graduate to the Chrome OS platform is the Amazon Kindle application. Amazon already provide a web application that allows offline reading and it works pretty well, too; I’m not sure of the need for the Android application on the platform other than familiarity or branding purposes. This list of eight applications is based on those currently under testing, but I should remind readers that these could be testing for the purposes of finding issues and errors with the Chrome OS Androdid Run Time rather than because they’re going to be released any time soon (if at all). Over to our readers: do you own an Android device and a Chromebook? If you do, what application do you miss the most when you’re on your Chromebook? What would you like to see bumped up in Google’s priority list of applications to be ported? Let us know in the comments below.