Google has just confirmed that all Chromebooks which launch this year and onward will offer support for Android apps. As you probably already know, Google had announced that Android app support is coming to Chromebook a while back, in May 2016, to be more precise. Since then, a couple of Chromebooks received support for Android apps, though not many of them, but it seems like all new Chromebook will ship with support for Android apps, and that seems like a huge step forward for the Chrome OS platform.
Now, as some of you might know, the ASUS Chromebook Flip, the Acer Chromebook R11 and the Google Chromebook Pixel 2 currently have support for Android apps, and more Chromebooks will get such support in the near future, a lot more of them, as Google’s support page states, you can find a full list by following the source link down below. Now, on that very same page, Google states that “All Chromebooks launching in 2017 and after as well as the Chromebooks listed below will work with Android apps in the coming future”. Now, this probably does not come as a surprise, as the company has been looking to bring Android apps to the Chrome OS platform in general for quite some time now. Chrome OS is a cloud-based operating system, as many of you already know, but it doesn’t really have access to that many apps, as you have to rely on Chrome extensions, which is where Android apps (will) come to play. The Google Play Store is home to tons of applications, and such apps can make Chromebooks far more usable in certain scenarios, as they will become far more productive.
We did not really see that many Chromebooks released in the last couple of months, but two really compelling offerings were announced during CES 2017 earlier this month. Samsung had introduced the Samsung Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro devices, while ASUS released the Chromebook Flip C302. Both Samsung’s and ASUS’ offerings come with support for Android apps, in case you didn’t know. New Chromebooks will likely be introduced during MWC 2017 which kicks off in Barcelona at the end of February, so stay tuned for that.