When Google announced that Android apps would be coming to Chrome OS, many were delighted. While some saw it as a concession to the fact that Chrome OS has yet to find an identity outside of education, others saw a rich ecosystem maturing beyond its original narrow purpose. Whatever your view, if you own an ASUS Chromebook Flip, you’ve been among the first to get a taste of Android apps on Chrome OS, at least, via official means. There have been some hangups, bugs and other issues, such as most Android apps wigging out when flipping the laptop into tablet mode or rotating the screen, but an update beginning to roll out today for Chrome OS will be helping to curb many of these issues.
Chrome OS 53.0.2773.0 dev contains a number of fixes not quite ready for the stable channel, tailor-made for the ASUS Chromebook Flip. While Android apps are more stable, starting an app in one orientation and flipping to another can result in glitches, like a landscape app flipping to portrait and only filling up half of the screen. The update also plants a little grey Chrome icon in the corner of web app icons, letting you know if what you’re about to launch is a super-stable web app or if you’re in for some Android-based shenanigans. Aside from these two visible and high-profile tweaks, most of the update is simply small under the hood tweaks and bug fixes.
It should also be noted that, although full multitasking is now supported in rudimentary form, you still cannot play a video in an out of focus window while working in another, and trying to do so can result in some instability. Additionally, some forms of media, like streaming music, may continue playing after you exit their task, requiring you to go back into that app and stop them manually. They also were forced to re-enter their Google login credentials, and gave a caveat that some users are reporting that access to the Play Store has been cut off and must be restored manually. While the update is still a bit unpolished, the compatibility fixes in regards to Android apps may be worth it for some.