Android apps break out of the small screen and jump to Chromebooks

A lot of Google services have transitioned to gain the title of "apps", and the same is true of a large number of extensions for the Chrome browser. These online tools are essentially cross-platforms apps that work identically Now Google is taking another step to break out of the confines of making apps available to a single platform. Android apps are, quite rightly, associated with smartphones and tablets, but now a small number of these mobile apps are finding their way onto Chromebook.

The (usually) cheap and cheerful Windows laptop/Mac Book alternative (did someone say netbook?) can now start to benefit from a handful of well-known titles from Android devices. It is very early days but as of today there are four Android apps available to Chromebook owners -- Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine -- but we can expect to see this list expand over time. The quartet of crossover apps were introduced today by Ken Mixter and Josh Woodward. A short blog posts penned by the pair explains that the Chromebook support comes thanks to the App Runtime for Chrome (Beta) project.

Before you get too excited, don't expect to fire up Google Play on your Chromebook and download every app you're using on your phone -- a little work has to be done to ensure compatibility. You can expect to see more apps appearing over the coming months, but you can ask if there's something specific you want. If you have a favorite Android app that you would like to be able to use with a full keyboard on your Chromebook, you can put in a request using a Google form (of course!).

If you missed the announcement that Chromebook users would be able to use Android apps, check out the video below from Google I/O keynote where the feature was introduced.