New Chromebooks are gaining Android app support today as the list of supported devices has grown by a considerable amount. This includes Chromebook models from Dell, ASUS, Acer, and Samsung among others, though all of the newly added Chromebooks will only have access to the Play Store for installing Android apps on the beta channel, which means that the builds these Chromebooks are receiving is not the final build for having Android app support, and owners of these devices should expect a future update that brings the access to the stable channel.
Of the Chromebooks that were added today, this includes Chromebooks from more well-known brands like the Samsung Chromebook 3, the Acer Chromebook 11 N7, the Acer Chromebook 15 (CB3-532), the Dell Chromebook 11 and Chromebook 11 Convertible, the Dell Chromebook 13, and the ASUS Chromebook C202SA and C300SA/C301SA, as well some not so well-known brands like the Mercer Chromebook NL6D. In total it looks like there are 16 new Chromebooks on the list of supported laptops for being able to access the Play Store which includes those mentioned above. For anyone with a compatible Chromebook, since the Play Store will only show up if you’re on the beta channel, you’ll need to enter your Chromebook settings and switch to the beta channel if you want to use Android apps on the laptop, then you’ll have to give your Chromebook a quick reboot.
Interestingly enough the Acer Chromebook 14 is listed as having a planned update that will lead to Android app support at some point in the future, but at least one user seems to have already gotten Play Store access, as it was reported earlier that a few different models of Chromebooks were seeing updates that brought Android 7.1 Nougat software along with it, and Play Store support was part of the package. That said, it’s not likely that many users on the Chromebook 14 will have the same experience, and when Google decides to officially push Play Store support to other devices it will update the support list just as it did for these 16 newly added models. If you don’t see your Chromebook model mentioned above, you can check the full list of supported Chromebooks at the source.