Google began rolling out support for the Google Play Store and Android apps on some Chromebooks in 2016. This year it looks like the company is preparing an update that will make it easier to view and interact with multiple Android apps at the same time.
Chrome Unboxed has posted some pictures of a pre-release version of Chrome OS featuring Android 7.1 integration. Up until now, the Android subsystem on Chromebooks was based on Android 6.0.
One of the most noteworthy differences is that Android 7.1 includes native multi-window support. When it comes to Chromebooks, that means you’ll be able to view two Android apps side-by-side in split screen mode. But it also means you’l be able to launch multiple Android apps in their own windows, and resize those windows to take up as much or as little space as you want.
Another improvement is that Android apps will keep running even when they’re not in focus. So you can start running an app and it will keep running in the background, even if you’re looking at a different app in the foreground.
In other words, Android apps are about to work a lot more like desktop programs when running on a Chromebook. Up until now, they’ve acted more like smartphone apps that just happen to be shown on a device with a larger screen and a physical keyboard.
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15 Comments on "Android 7.1 on Chromebooks to bring better multitasking support (for Android apps)"
I am really interested in giving chrome OS a try but I don’t want to buy a chromebook unless I am convinced it is worth it. I also couldn’t find a way to download it so I can run it in a virtual machine.
You can install Chromium on a VM – though I’m not sure if it supports running Android applications on that. (I tried it a few years ago, and thought it was about as interesting as running Chrome on any other platform – except that most of the webapps from the Chrome store didn’t work, due to needing native plugins that didn’t support ChromeOS!)
Google play store support is only available for Chrome Os devices right now.
Install it on a USB stick and boot to the usb stick from a laptop or desktop.
I actually have a spare 128gb SSD which I am planning to use as a Linux portable setup but I think I’ll give it a try.
If you have a supported PC (EFI boot) you can try Chrome os with cloudready https://www.neverware.com/
Why somebody even need a chrome OS? Isn’t Ubuntu much more (in terms of functionality)? You can always install Chrome or Chromium in Ubuntu.
I usually like to experiment with a different OS every now and then.
can’t wait for next gen chromebook!
This is interesting. I’m looking at the Samsung CB Pro as a possible lightweight laptop upgrade. The plan was to remove ChromeOS and replace with Linux because of Google’s illegal mass surveillance, data-mining and 3rd-party sharing strategy. Opting for an OS that respects individual rights is one of the few things I can actually effect in the grand scheme of things.
May give this Windows-like dual-OS Hybrid a shot within a dual-boot system (if possible). I’ll can play around with the privacy toggles a bit (locally and online).
Really would make a difference to have a sophisticated firewall (with host file access, port stealthing, traffic monitoring, Intrusion Detection – ie, standard features) installed as well as a system-level VPN for all apps accessing the internet. Not sure if ChromeOS even allows one to actually try and protect themselves – Google’s PR notwithstanding.
Here in reality there isn’t anything illegal about what Google does. They are easily the most forthcoming of the many companies which collect data for marketing. Also they don’t share with third parties other than law enforcement under laws which they must obey just like everyone else.
Once it becomes mature this is going to be one of the best features of Android on Chrome OS. It will probably be the most up-to-date version in the market.
What is so ironic is that more and more Windows applications are Web based and now the “web browser OS” more and more has native apps instead of Web through Android.
Chromebooks with Crouton even before this were excellent machines and poorly understood. This just makes it that much better.
Basically overnight Chromebooks received access to many more things people want to do natively than Windows.
So for example Snapchat native on Chromebooks but NOT Windows. Tinder, Pinterest, and tons of other popular apps are now native on Chromebooks but there is NOT a native version on Windows.
Things change quick in tech.
Except – there’s still no way to get around the limitations developers build into their apps. For example, there are apps that can’t be downloaded from the Play Store unless the device is a phone. Until Google provides a checkbox to allow people to spoof user agents and get around these limitations, we’ll end up with a library but only able to access a handful of apps or limited functionality.