Still Waiting for the Chromebook Revolution that Never Came (Premium)

In mid-2016, Google announced that it was bringing Android apps and the Google Play Store to Chromebooks. But that hasn't happened yet, leading me to wonder about this potential game-changer.

I've long considered a potential linkup between Android, the world's dominant mobile platform, and Chrome OS, the lightweight, browser-based OS that sits behind Chromebook and related hardware products. Actually, I've also long questioned the very need for Chrome OS, given the work that Google had already done---and has done since---on Android.

Google's unclear messaging about the platforms hasn't helped. The firm released two incredibly expensive Chromebook Pixel laptops in 2013 and 2015, but then it followed it up by a Pixel C 2-in-1 in 2016 ... that was based on Android.

And then there are the rumors that Google will combine Android and Chrome OS into a single platform, code-named Andromeda. For example, in October 2015, the Wall Street Journal cited multiple sources in a story claiming that Google would "fold Chrome into Android." Days later, Google apparently refuted the report, noting that it had "no plan to phase out Chrome OS." But that line was consistent with the WSJ story, which noted that Google would "continue maintaining" Chrome OS. Point being, Google never really did refute rumors about its plans for Andromeda.

Then in April 2016, Ars Technica reported that Google would bring Android apps to Chrome OS, though the source of the leak more correctly noted the real terminology: "Choose from over a million apps and games on Google Play to install and use on your Chromebook." That is, the as-yet-announced plan was to bolster Chromebooks specifically, and not Chromebox and other Chrome OS-based devices, with Android apps and the store.

It was never clear if this was our first real peek at Andromeda. That is, "folding Chrome OS into Android" isn't the same thing as "running Android apps on Chrome OS/Chromebook." In fact, it's the opposite thing. But then that's the nature of rumors, which often work like the telephone game, with murky and misunderstood information leading to conjecture and mistakes. So for now, we can only speculate.

But in May 2016, Google finally confirmed that it would bring Android apps to Chromebook specifically, and not to Chrome OS generally. (The reasons for this only became clear later; more on that in a moment.) It would do so over time, with the public released expected by the end of 2016.

More specifically, Google promised the following:

The Google Play Store is coming to Chromebooks. Chromebooks use the Chrome Web Store to find and install web apps. But this addition means that Chromebook users will be able to find and install Android apps too.

You will be able to run Android apps on Chromebooks. Any Android app that is distributed via the Google Play Store will run on Chrome OS in the near future, Google claimed.

Android apps on Chrome will have unique capabilities. Android apps will...