Google confirms plans to merge ChromeOS into Android

There was hypothesis for a very long time that Google may at some point mix Android and ChromeOS, the working system that powers its wide selection of Chromebook laptops. Final yr, a report from Android Authority indicated that Google is at the moment enterprise a “multi-year undertaking to completely transition ChromeOS into Android.” Though Google by no means confirmed this on the time, it has now performed so.

Sameer Samat, president of Google’s Android ecosystem, confirmed throughout an interview with TechRadar that the corporate is “going to be combining ChromeOS and Android right into a single platform.” Samat made the feedback after inquiring in regards to the reporter’s MacBook, saying he was “fascinated by how persons are utilizing their laptops today.”

Samat oversees Android’s growth and implementation throughout a variety of units, together with cell, wearables, TV, automobiles, and extra, so it appears he might now have laptops underneath his belt as effectively.

There are nonetheless numerous unanswered questions

It may take a number of years to see this all unfold

Acer

Whereas this information about Google formally combining ChromeOS with Android is thrilling, there stay many unanswered questions, particularly relating to when customers can anticipate to see this totally realized. If final yr’s report is any indication, this might take a few years to occur.

Moreover, does this imply that within the foreseeable future, we will anticipate to see Google promoting Chromebooks that run a fully-fledged model of Android? I hope so, as a result of contemplating the scale of the Android ecosystem and the tens of millions of apps out there, it could make Google’s Chromebook laptops virtually as resourceful as a Home windows PC or a Mac. Whereas Chromebooks can run numerous Android apps proper now, they are not appropriate with all of them resulting from ChromeOS’s limitations. Android Headlines reported final yr {that a} Google Pixel Laptop computer was in growth, in order that could possibly be what Google is constructing as much as by merging ChromeOS with Android.

There are already indicators that Android is adopting extra PC-like options. Later this yr, Google is predicted to launch a quarterly replace for Android 16 on its Pixel telephones, which features a new desktop mode for multitasking “constructed on the inspiration of Samsung DeX.” This implies Pixel customers with Android 16 will quickly have the ability to join their telephones to an exterior show and use their Pixel virtually like a PC.

I am very excited to see the outcomes of the ChromeOS and Android merger, and even with the restricted info out there, I am extra optimistic about the way forward for Google’s Chromebooks than I’ve been for the reason that first one was launched again in 2011.

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