Buckle up, Chromebook users — Sameer Samat, president of the Android ecosystem at Google, has confirmed that the company is actively working to integrate ChromeOS with Android. This signals a future where Chromebooks may soon run on Android instead.
“We’re going to be combining ChromeOS and Android into a single platform, and I am very interested in how people are using their laptops these days and what they’re getting done,” Samat said in an interview with Techradar.
This development has been in discussion for the last year. In June 2024, Google announced that it was starting to use parts of Android in "simplify engineering tasks" and "accelerate the pace of AI innovation" in ChromeOS. There's no definitive timeline for when this merger will take place.
Chromebooks are primarily designed for cloud-based tasks, like word processing via Google Docs, and offer a simple, secure experience for many users. Since everything is based in a web browser, Chromebooks don't carry the same software compatibility issues as traditional computers, like those running Windows or macOS.
You've been able to run Android apps on Chromebooks for some time, but the latest change is designed to streamline the software development within Google.
Rather than building the same software features for both Android and ChromeOS, the teams at Google will only need to do the work once and roll it out across millions of devices worldwide. According to Samat, this will "unlock new levels of performance, iterate faster, & make your laptop + phone work better together."
It's also already been a big year for Google and Android, with the latest version of the mobile operating system — Android 16 — announced at the Google I/O developer conference. Samat called it the platform's “biggest design change in Android in three or four years.”
Android 16 is now available to download on Google Pixel smartphones and tablets, and slowly rolling out to other manufacturer's devices, like Samsung Galaxy devices via its new One UI 8 update.
Compared to Android 15, the new version was released with more support for tablet-sized devices, smoother animations, and more customization opportunities.
For instance, you can not only take a photo and set it as your wallpaper, but you can also bleed the image's colour palette throughout different systems such as Gmail and different third-party apps.
“Android has always been about enabling you to personalize and customize your device. With the initial launch of Material Design, several years ago, we took it to the next level," said Samat.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
GOOGLE PRESS OFFICE
|Android 16 is displayed to showcase smoother animations and more customization opportunities.
While Chromebooks already support several Android apps right now like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify, they're not compatible with all of them due to ChromeOS limitations. Beyond app compatibility, these restrictions include:
- Window management: Android apps, especially those designed for phones, may not handle multitasking and windowing as seamlessly as native ChromeOS applications or desktop-class software.
- Hardware limitations: Select Chromebook models can lack features required by Android apps like GPS.
- Offline functionality: ChromeOS relies heavily on internet connectivity for full access to app features
- Lack of performance: Power-intensive Android apps for activities like video editing or gaming may not work as optimally.
More From GB News