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Depends on your Chromebook, I have a Acer R13 and it's installed and running (just checked it). Android app's don't have a designated "runs on Chromebook" Flag as far I know, so you can't really block it.

But Chromebooks are sometimes a little bit special. I'm working on a app right now which is designed for tablets and wanted to check if I could run it on my Chromebook, because of the bigger screen (13" compared to Samsung S5/S6 with ~10") and I couldn't install it from the alpha channel. The thing was, it has a camera, a front camera, but the Manifest.xml required the default camera permission which was missing and this prevented me from even finding the app in the PlayStore.

And Slack as app is basically only the website. All the "native" apps seem to just render it (Linux, MacOs and Windows are Electron apps, the Android version feels like a WebView)



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From what I read somewhere, recent versions of ChromeOS allow you to run Android Apps. My Chromebook is too ancient to test.

Only if your device is on a list of recent supported Chromebooks and Chromeboxes.

For instance my old Acer Chromebook 13 never got Android app support, it was too old despite being based on the same Nvidia Tegra K1 ARM CPU that has been used in a number of Android devices.


From my experience with an Acer R11 chromebook, there are no pre-installed android apps. You have to explicitly install them from the play store.

Given that a chromebook has pretty good integration with GSuite apps via the web, I am guessing most folks will not need the android versions.


You certainly can if you install Linux on your Chromebook. I've been using my Chromebook this way for years. But I use a real Linux distro independent of Google (my system will not run Android apps). I have no idea if Google's relatively recent Linux offering works as well.

So Chromebooks only let you run software that a Google employee approved, unless you wipe your device to enable developer mode (which nobody, after using it for a while and then deciding to develop something, will want to do)? There is no other way to run some test code on it? I didn't know that and it seems strange (even Android is more liberal than that, and that's not a laptop) so genuine question.

I don't own a chromebook, but have you tried [0]? Looks like it allows to run linux programs fairly easily.

[0] https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton


I've tried it with one APK on my Macbook and it worked fine. So no Chromebook required as of this time.

IMHO, these chromebooks are not laptops - they are large screen tablets with the bluetooth keyboard attached to them.

So the idea, and if I recall correctly, proof of concept, of ChromeOS running Android apps isn't a large stretch.

edit: I just watched the promotional video, and I was right about their interest in ChromeOS running Android apps, I was just wrong about its maturity level. The video states that ChromeOS runs "select" Android apps.


Oh i forgot to mention i have installed android on the chrome book and i can run react native android app on the chrome book.

Right, I'm sorry if I wasn't clear --- when I said "run in Chrome" I meant "in the Chrome browser regardless of OS, e.g. in Linux"

I want the kiddo to have not a Chromebook, but real Linux, e.g. Ubuntu. While the Android apps work fine, other things we do (e.g. easily saving files, dealing with local network stuff like Java Minecraft play) do not.


I believe it's enabled on ARM Chromebooks, ahead of the others because it's the one that really needs it. I know that the Secure Shell app uses it, and Netflix will soon as well. Maybe it isn't enabled but certain apps are whitelisted.

I run a PixelBook running Firefox for Debian with ublock and other privacy settings on high. Not stuck with Chrome on a chromebook that can run Linux apps.

I'm afraid we don't have a Chromebook to test on. We do test on Chrome and Linux, though, so hopefully it works well.

Thanks!


while not as fun as "in Chrome," I can this second run quite a few Android apps in ChromeOS on my Pixelbook. They are a UI abomination, but it does give me "local" access to 1Password and a few other things which would be annoying as PWAs

You can set the chromebook in developer mode and have a full linux system with all the software you want.

Or you can install the android version of firefox.

So yes, it is allowed.


Well, it's basically a Googler's hobby project, so you can't expect any 'official' confirmation, but there's no reason it shouldn't run on any x86 Chromebook.

All new Chromebooks support android and linux. I guess you looked at this[1] list? That basically listed the first Chromebooks that got support for it. Doesn't necessarily mean its recommended to run it on these.

[1] https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-suppo...


ChromeOS is also locked ;) Android apps on it are even more restricted.

I can install Android and Linux app's on my chromebook Firefox linux app works fine too.
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