Android, ChromeOS, and the way forward for app discovery
Hardly anybody’s noticing, however one thing extremely attention-grabbing is shaping up on the intersection of Google’s Android and ChromeOS platforms.
Google/JR Raphael
Android and ChromeOS. ChromeOS and Android. Has there ever been a extra enigmatic and question-creating couple within the mobile-tech universe?
From the get-go, Google’s two main platforms have been the topic of countless scorn and hypothesis. Folks who do not truly use a Chromebook and have not skilled ChromeOS since its earliest days have lengthy been satisfied that the platform serves no sensible objective and is destined for loss of life. For ages, the favored narrative revolved across the notion that Google was gonna in some way “merge” the 2 right into a single consolidated entity.
The actual story, after all, turned out to be far more nuanced. For years now, Google’s been slowly however absolutely bringing its two platforms collectively and aligning them to make ’em extra linked, constant, and appropriate. The aim, it appears, is much less of a binary, one-or-the-other form of choice and extra of a best-of-both-worlds, dual-pronged path.
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And now, it seems that street is about to take a noteworthy new flip — one that would critically shake up a core a part of the person expertise on either side of the Android-ChromeOS equation.
It all comes right down to apps and the way we uncover ’em. And if some current indicators on Android and ChromeOS alike are any indication, issues are about to get attention-grabbing.
The ChromeOS app problem
Our story begins on the ChromeOS aspect of the mobile-tech divide. In the land o’ Chromebooks, for anybody paying consideration, the query has shifted over time from a snide “What are you able to even do on these issues?” to a much more intriguing “What cannot you do on ’em?”
To wit: Chromebooks right this moment supply a full-fledged desktop-caliber internet searching atmosphere. They allow you to set up progressive internet apps, Android apps, Linux apps, and even Windows apps, in case you actually wish to get wild. You can use ’em as laptops, tablets, or something in between. ChromeOS could have began out being about sheer simplicity as a defining characteristic, nevertheless it’s very a lot carried out a 180 and remodeled itself into the “the whole lot” platform.
In observe, that is confirmed to be each a blessing and a curse. Chromebooks right this moment are extremely succesful, as anybody who truly makes use of ’em can let you know, they usually supply loads of enticing benefits over extra conventional desktop setups. But on the similar time, all these prospects have made it nearly unattainable to know the place to start and what sort of app to hunt out for what objective.
For one instance, in case you wished to make use of the duty administration app Todoist on a Chromebook, you may:
Head spinning but? Mine certain is. It’s a ridiculous labyrinth for normal customers to deal with, and even of us who may not explicitly understand all these choices exist usually discover themselves going through vexing limitations once they set up an app sort that is not solely optimum for his or her meant objective.
Two years in the past, I first reported on clues that exposed a slowly shaping-up technique for fixing this flaw — what I referred to on the time as Google’s “grand ChromeOS plan.” The concept was virtually painfully easy: Google would place the Play Store as not only a place for Android apps, because it’s historically been, however as a broader one-stop store for a number of forms of apps on Chromebooks — with the shop itself figuring out which app sort makes probably the most sense for any given objective after which robotically putting in the suitable choice for you.
We noticed early indicators of that plan popping up on Chromebooks round that point, and Google later confirmed to me in an interview that it was certainly engaged on such an effort. The aim, two ChromeOS execs informed me, was to show the Play Store into an all-purpose discovery device the place Chromebook homeowners might discover no matter apps they wanted — together with even Linux apps, in sure circumstances — with out having to consider the underlying expertise.
Many months have handed since that unassuming begin. But this summer time, we’re seeing some tantalizing indicators of progress that would propel the plan ahead and lay the groundwork for a way more intuitive app-discovering expertise on ChromeOS — and, the massive twist: additionally on Android.
The Android-ChromeOS app connection
So right here it’s: You’d be forgiven for failing to note, however within the ChromeOS 104 replace that rolled out earlier this month, Google quietly added within the capability to seek out apps within the Play Store just by looking out in your Chromebook’s launcher — the freshly redesigned window that pops up while you faucet your Chromebook’s Everything button (also referred to as the Search or Launcher key).
One faucet, and growth: You can discover after which set up any app you want proper there within the precise working system, with out having to determine which supply is suitable after which open up and search by means of that particular storefront.
JR
Simple. Streamlined. Consolidated. It’s such a smart change, the one baffling factor is why it is taken this lengthy for it to occur.
To ensure, the work right here is way from completed. The Play Store itself nonetheless wants to really assist and floor all these totally different app sorts intelligently, in a approach that is sensible for the Chromebook atmosphere. (As of now, that occurs solely with a really restricted set of particular applications.) But now, at the very least, the inspiration is coming into focus — and the concept of ChromeOS itself turning into the app discovery mechanism and eliminating the necessity to work together with any particular app retailer is beginning to take form.
Now for the actually intriguing half: In Android 13 on its self-made Pixel telephones, Google can be now experimenting with surfacing app outcomes from the Play Store as a part of the first house display screen search system — as soon as once more from proper throughout the precise working system. It’s the identical fundamental idea, in different phrases, solely translated into Android phrases. And it, too, has the potential to result in a fair broader rethinking of what the Play Store represents and what an “Android app” even is.
When I first wrote about Google’s grand ChromeOS plan, I ended with a little bit of an speculative “what if?”-style state of affairs. Go, go, Gadget Quoting Machine:
Consider this: Google’s been experimenting with the concept of progressive internet apps on Android for some time now. The firm already makes it attainable for builders to embed such applications inside conventional Android app buildings after which put these into the Play Store. How far of a leap would it not be to begin providing up standalone progressive internet apps immediately rather than Android apps for telephones, too, in circumstances the place that’d be optimum?
I’ll let you know this: I’ve some standalone progressive internet apps by myself telephone, and … they’re surprisingly nice to make use of — in a approach that nearly makes you neglect you are not utilizing an everyday, native Android app. Just sayin’.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Once once more, fascinating issues are occurring on the intersection of Google’s two main platforms. And now, the inspiration is flowing freely in each instructions — from Android to ChromeOS and from ChromeOS again to Android.
The solely actual query is how lengthy it’s going to take for this newest piece of the puzzle to fall into place — and the way lengthy it’s going to take for the Android- and Chromebook-carrying lots to adapt to an entire new mind-set about apps.
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