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In our review, we noted the touchscreen didn’t add much to Chrome OS. These new applications also give a purpose to the touchscreen on the Acer Chromebook R11. There’s a Skype app for Android, so I can finally make Skype video calls on a Chromebook. For me, it’s making Skype video calls. Bringing Android apps to Chrome OS fixes this, and many, problems. I think most Chromebook users have at least one thing they’d like to do regularly, but can’t. Skype calls on a Chromebook, and so much more The results are not added to your icon bar, but can be quickly found in the Search menu once installed. From there you can drag them to the icon bar, if you wish, or just launch them. Google Play can now be found in the icon bar, and it works exactly the way it does on Android devices. Android apps get no such icon.īut I’m getting ahead of myself. All of your old Chrome apps have a tiny Chrome icon overlaying them in the bottom-right corner, as though to signify their second-class status. When I started up the latest development build of Chrome OS, one thing stood out: Google sees Android apps as the future. Jealous of all the cool screenshots I saw on Twitter, and curious about how well Android apps work on the platform, I decided to switch the OS to Developer builds and take a look for myself.
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Three devices currently offer Android apps for users brave enough to switch to Developer builds of Chrome OS - the Asus Chromebook Flip, the 2015 Chromebook Pixel, and Acer’s Chromebook R11.Īs it happens, I recently reviewed the Chromebook R 11, and Digital Trends still has it kicking in our closet full of laptops. Fitbit Versa 3īill Roberson/Digital TrendsGoogle Play is rolling out onto Chromebooks, meaning the web-only operating system will soon offer millions of local applications.
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