Living with Chromebook: Android Apps (Premium)

If you think that Chromebooks must be online to work and can only run web apps and sites, you’re not paying attention. In recent years, this platform has picked up support for two key application platforms, Android and Linux, dramatically expanding its capabilities while---spoiler alert---also driving up the complexity. 

Let’s start with Android, since the app library is so large, and because this addition impacts far more people.  

The appeal is obvious: The Google Play Store is the largest app store on earth, and its availability on Chromebook exponentially improves the apps situation on that platform. It’s a no-brainer, right?  

Well, yes. And no. In Facebook parlance, it’s complicated. 

In the plus column, Android app support completes the Chrome OS application story in many ways. That is, being forced to use only web apps and sites can be limiting, in the same way that Windows 10 is limiting in S mode. You’ll find that most of what you want to do is, in fact, available, unless of course you have very particular needs. But there’s always that one app, that one thing you need that throws you off. And over time, as these missing pieces add up, the platform seems less and less viable. 

Google’s solution is a good one, at least theoretically until all the wrinkles are ironed out. That is, being able to run Android apps should pretty much overcome that missing piece for most users. Android, after all, has all the apps. So to speak. 

But again, it’s complicated. 

The first complication is that Android app developers, for whatever reason, have not done as good a job converting their offerings to work well on the large displays found on Chromebooks. This issue has doomed Android tablets, just as the widespread support for larger displays in the iOS developer community has made the iPad so compelling. (A semi-related issue is that some Android apps still don’t recognize or in any way customize to support other unique Chrome OS and Chromebook features, despite Google supporting this in its Android APIs.) 

What that means is that some apps will simply look/work better if you let them run as if they were on a smartphone, in a small, smartphone-shaped window. Consider Microsoft OneDrive as a good example. When used maximized on a Chromebook, this app doesn’t do anything to customize the display to make better use of the bigger display. All I could really do here is display the view in thumbnails and maybe see more on the screen at once.  

(OneDrive also doesn’t do anything special to support a mouse or touchpad. So when you mouse over its icons, no tooltip appears to explain what the icons do.) 

When you restore this app to its native size/shape, all becomes clear: This app was designed only for smartphones, and its user interface assumes that form factor. 

Is it weird to use an application in this kind of window on a desktop-type PC? Sure....