Chrome OS update with Play Store support comes to developers

Google is in the process of distributing a Chrome OS update in the developer channel that will allow Android apps to be installed via the Play Store. The update currently only works with three different Chromebooks.

The discovery was made by David Ruddock of Android Police on an Asus Chromebook Flip. The other two compatible Chromebooks are the Acer Chromebook R11 / C738T and the Chromebook Pixel 2015. To see the Play Store in all its glory, dev-channel 53 must be used.

After enabling Android Apps via the settings menu, a version of the Play Store is installed. After that, various applications can be installed, but not everything works. For example, Instagram and WhatsApp are not compatible, according to a first quick test. Telegram and many games seem to work at first glance. The fact that apps such as WhatsApp do not work may have to do with the lack of a SIM card.

Some apps can run in full screen mode, such as Angry Birds, and some function as if they were running on a smartphone in a vertical window. We will soon be testing further what that looks like.

That Chrome OS would get Android apps via the Play Store was officially announced by Google during the I/O developer conference in May. The update should be finally released in September and should support dozens of Chromebooks Android apps by the end of the year.