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Soon after Google’s announcement back in May that Chrome OS devices would start seeing updates that enabled them to grab Android apps from the Play Store, new Chromebooks started hitting the market with a bit of a speed boost and new features like touch screens that would accommodate Android apps well. One of those, released in September, was the Acer Chromebook R13. The premium convertible had all the hallmarks of being able to run Android apps, but ticking all of the right boxes was apparently not all that was needed, and the device launched without the much-lauded feature. Now, a couple months out from release, Acer Chromebook R13 users who are willing to hop onto the Beta channel for updates can finally run their favorite Android apps on their beloved Chromebook.
Play Store functionality on the Dev channel has been available on the Acer Chromebook R13 for a couple of days now, but the Dev channel’s OS updates are notoriously buggy, and even approach levels of breakage and fuss that could exclude them from daily driver eligibility for many users. For obvious reasons, reports on just how well the Play Store itself worked in the Dev channel update varied wildly. Thus, the Play Store’s arrival to the relatively stable Beta channel means that the functionality is now accessible to a much larger number of users and will cause far fewer problems for those who decide to give it a whirl.
To hop into the Beta channel and check out the feature for yourself, you’ll want to go into your settings, go to About Chrome OS, then up to More Info, then Change Channel, and click on Beta. You can join the Dev rollout in the same way, or jump back to the stable channel if things get too hairy. The Chrome OS Beta release packing the feature for Acer Chromebook R13 users is update R55. Anybody on the Beta channel and not seeing that as their system version number should have an update waiting for them. As for an update to the Stable channel, the fact that the release number for the Beta channel is R55 could mean that the feature will come with the update to Chrome OS 55 on the stable channel that’s set to come in December, but that is, for now, just speculation.