Report: Google is Moving Chrome OS Fully to Android

A report citing a single source claims that Google is undertaking a multiyear project to transition Chrome OS to Android so it can compete more effectively with Apple’s iPad.

I normally wouldn’t repeat such a lightly sourced report, but there’s evidence that such a shift is already underway. Just five months ago, for example, Google announced that it was bringing key parts of the Android technology stack to Chrome OS so that it could roll out AI features more quickly to each platform. At the time, I noted that hardware compatibility played a role as well: Where Android is broadly compatible with third-party peripherals, Chrome OS remains relatively unknown.

Now, Android Authority is claiming that Google will migrate the entire Chrome OS code base to Android, in part because multiple efforts to better compete with the iPad have all failed. This will require a multi-year effort, the publication says, and it will bring Android to the one computing space in which it doesn’t currently compete, laptops. Oddly, I just reviewed a Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid laptop that includes a full Android device in its display and can be used as an Android-based tablet.

In unifying its Android and Chrome OS engineering efforts, Google can simplify its OS offerings and provide a single platform for developers to target. It will apparently continue using the Chromebook brand, though future devices will run Android, not Chrome OS. And the author of the report believes that a rumored Pixel Laptop will be among those devices.

For this to work, however, Google needs to address the needs of desktop computing in Android, and that means a fully functional version of the Chrome web browser with support for extensions and a Terminal app by which developers and others can run Linux apps. It needs more sophisticated windowing and multitasking capabilities, improved keyboard and mouse support, external display support, and perhaps even virtual desktop functionality.

I like the simplicity of Chrome OS and worry that this shift will simply result in another Windows-like platform with unnecessary complexity. And it’s fair to say that Apple has to date given up on making the iPad competitive with desktop systems. So it’s not clear what this transition, if true, will achieve. Still, it’s interesting to speculate about the rationale for this, and we’ll see how long it makes, and whether it even happens.