You’ve been able to run Android apps on some Chromebooks since June, but when the feature first launched it was only available if your Chromebook was using Chrome 53 Dev Channel.
Eventually Google brought support for Android apps to the beta channel, and now Chrome OS 53 Stable supports the Google Play Store and Android apps.
There are a few caveats though: the Play Store for Chrome OS is still considered beta. And only two devices support the feature so far: the Acer Chromebook R11 and Asus Chromebook Flip. Update: And the 2015 Chromebook Pixel.
It’s likely that the 2015 Chromebook Pixel will be next in line, and eventually Google plans to roll out Android support to dozens of Chrome OS laptop and desktop systems including some models with touchscreens and many models without them.
While Google talks up the inclusion of the Play Store, the company has actually built an entire Android subsystem into Chrome OS, which makes it possible to sideload apps and even install third-party app stores such as the Amazon Appstore.
I’ve been able to install the official Amazon Instant Video app, for instance, and download Amazon videos so that I can watch even when there’s no internet connection (although Amazon videos still look better if you just stream them over the internet in a Chrome web browser, since the Instant Video app doesn’t seem to want to play videos in full screen).