The project named “App Runtime For Chrome”,but it has lot of limitations and some apps wont work.Only in Chrome browser one can make use of this.Initially only 4 Android apps -Vine, Evernote, Duolingo and Sight Words were added to the Chrome Store.
Very interesting project and Android fans excited about this, as well waiting for all the apps from Android to exist.Many doubt run in users mind about whether this can be using in other OS which are not mentioned and when will other apps run expect those 4 apps mentioned above.
A developer by the name of “Vlad Filippov” began working on this project and figured out a way to bring more Android apps to Chrome, but these were against the limits proposed by Google.Successfully he made the apps work on Windows, Mac and Linux and it can be run only in Chrome Not any other Browsers.
Since ARC(App Runtime For Chrome) was only officially released as an extension on Chrome Operating System, but Native Client extensions are meant to be used on different platform.So, in an efforts to do so, Filippov made a custom version of ARC, called ARChon, which supports both desktop Chrome and Chrome OS. However, there is one potential roadblock with the ARChon that it doesn’t run Android app packages (APKs), which instead need to be converted into a Chrome extension.
HOW TO USE DIFFERENT ANDROID APPS IN YOUR CHROME OS :
- The Developer has posted the code and instruction on github. In short you need to do is:
- Install Android app from the Chrome Web Store so your Chromebook will install the Android app runtime.
- Install Node.js and Filippov’s chromeos-apk tool on a Linux system (it’ll work on a Chromebook running
- Ubuntu in Crouton, so you don’t necessarily need a separate computer).
- Download an Android APK and then use the chromeos-apk tool to prepare the app to run on Chrome OS.
- Copy the converted app to your Chromebook, type “chrome://extensions” (without quotes” in the URL bar, enable Developer mode, and then use the “Load unpacked extension” option to locate and install the app.
Pandora, Twitter, Soundcloud, and Skype works now but other apps like Whatsapp and others are yet to be available in the Chrome store.Stay tuned for updates.
