After many rumors and leaks, Google announced today that Android apps are going to be coming to Chrome OS. They won’t be made available until “later this year”. However, in June there will be three Chromebooks capable of running the Google Play Store. These include the Acer Chromebook R11, ASUS Chromebook Flip and the Google Chromebook Pixel (2015). What about the rest of the Chromebook’s that have been sold over the years? Well the majority of them will be able to run the Google Play store, but anything older than late 2014, likely won’t be able to run the Google Play store. It’s unclear as to why that is the case. It likely isn’t the hardware, considering the original Chromebook Pixel isn’t getting Android Apps, and it’s running an Intel Core i5 with 4GB of RAM.
From Acer we have the Chromebook 11 C740, CB3-111, C730, CB3-131, Chromebook 14 CB3-431, Chromebook 14 for Work, Chromebook 15 CB5-571, CB3-531, C910, Chromebase 24, and the Chromebook CXI2. From ASUS the Chromebook C200, C201, C202SA, C300SA, C300, Chromebook Flip C100PA, Chromebox CB62, and the Chromebit CS10. Dell’s Chromebook 11 31210 and Chromebook 13 7310 are compatible with Android apps. Haier’s Chromebook 11, Chromebook 11e, Chromebook 11G2, HiSense’s Chromebook 11 are also compatible. From HP, the Chromebook 11 G3, G4, G4 EE, Chromebook 14 G4 and the Chromebook 13. Lenovo’s 100S Chromebook, N20, N20P, N21 Chromebook, ThinkCentre Chromebox, N22 Chromebook, Thinkpad 13 and the Thinkpad 11e Gen 2. Samsung’s Chromebook 2 11-inch and Chromebook 3, Toshiba has their Chromebook 2 and Chromebook 2 (2015) eligible for Android apps.
That’s not all of the Chromebooks that are compatible with the Google Play Store, but those are the popular ones. You can check out the source link below for the complete list from Google. If you own one of these Chromebooks, you’ll soon be able to use any of almost a million Android apps on your Chromebook, Chromebox, Chromebase and even the Chromebit. Google has worked on these apps and games so that they work great with both touch screens as well as using the mouse, as you would on most of the lower-end Chromebooks which don’t have a touch screen. Google has not yet announced when Google Play Store support will be available on the rest of the Chrome OS devices that are available, but they did say later this year. It shouldn’t be all that much longer before we see these Android apps invade Chrome OS.