Google I/O 2016: Google Play Store reaches Chrome OS

Google announced a ton of new features for both users and developers at its Google I/O 2016 keynote event. The search giant, emphasizing on its improved machine learning and artificial intelligence technology, announced Google Smart Home, Allo smart messaging app, Google assistant and much more. However, it missed out on one major announcement that was rumoured since past couple of months.

In a separate event during the three-day conference, the company will be announcing the arrival of Android apps and Google Play Store to the Chrome OS. The confirmation came from a session description on the Google I/O website. The description has since been pulled from the website.


“Today we announced that we’re adding the best mobile app experiences in the world, Android apps and the Google Play store, to the best browser in the world, Chrome! Come to this session and test your Android apps for Chrome OS. You will get hands on help from our friendly engineers on how to optimize your Android app for Chromebooks. Oh, and we will also be giving the first 50 developers to show up a free Chromebook so they can get a head start bringing their apps to Chrome!,” read the event description.


The debut of Google Play Store and other Android apps on Chrome OS will be a welcome addition for all potential and existing Chromebook users. Those who earlier avoided the Chrome OS-based Google Chromebook devices because of the limited number of apps would now be able to run almost any Android app from the Play Store on the OS. This strategic move is likely to boost the reach of Chrome OS and the sale of Chromebook laptops and PCs.

It is worth adding that Google might not bring all the Android apps to its Chrome OS platform at once. The firm might initially let developers work on their apps to make them compatible with the OS, and will then gradually roll them out to users.