Google Announces First Android Apps Running Natively On Chrome OS – Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, Vine

Back at the Google I/O keynote this summer, we saw a very interesting demonstration – as Sundar Pichai explained, Google wants to make the experience between Android devices and Chromebooks seamless by allowing Android apps to run natively on Chrome (using App Runtime for Chrome, currently in beta). Evernote, Vine, and Flipboard were demonstrated on stage, and today Google has announced the first batch of Android apps that will run on Chrome right now. Among them are Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine. Flipboard is still notably absent.

For now, Google is working “with a select group of Android developers to add more of your favorite apps,” meaning there won’t exactly be a flood of native Android experiences coming to Chrome OS users. Still, the feature is already pretty awesome. Apps are downloaded from the Chrome Web Store (for devices running Chrome 37 or above) and show up in the task bar just like regular Chrome apps. They can be resized to show either their tablet or phone layouts, meaning the full Android experience is faithfully represented on screen.

Source: Chrome Blog via Ars Technica