Google is finally smashing Android and Chrome together and it's awesome
The company is bringing its mobile OS Android app store, Play, to Chrome OS, the software that runs on its Chromebook laptops, it announced at its IO developers' conference on Thursday.
That means that Chromebooks will soon be able to run all 1.5 million Android apps.
The functionality will launch with three new Chromebooks this summer, with additional devices getting the functionality in the fall.
This move brings a lot more functionality to Chromebooks. Users who crave a more seamless experience across their laptop and Android smartphone will now have it. It's also a long time coming: Google promised that Android apps would be coming to Chromebooks way back in 2014.
"You can write your term paper and get your Snapchats all on the same device without ever having to take your phone out of your pocket," a Chrome product manager said on stage.
Jillian D'Onfro
It's also potentially good news for app developers who will be able to reach more users. It won't be without some effort though: most smartphone apps will look pretty lousy on the big screen of a Chromebook device, so developers will have to make some tweaks to their design.
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