You know it or not, but Chromebooks have been running Android 9 for some time. In fact, we can track the latest major Android update on Chrome OS until February 2019. Yes, more than two years to go. ‘ Waiting for an Android update is a bit excessive, but Google has made the choice to skip Android 10. in favor of working on Android 11, as this version of Android has a much better way to handle apps with window. Clearly, on Chromebooks, this is a very important factor in how it all works together.
With the Android 11 update finally coming out in a way that real users can try it out, it looks like Google is making some big changes in the way Chromebooks handle Android apps. For now, it’s only for users on ‘Hatch’ devices (10th generation Comet Lake processors) in the Beta channel, but it’s going to expand more in the coming weeks. Let’s start with the big change under the hood.
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ARCVM is finally a thing
If you have not encountered ARCVM on Chrome Unboxed before, I can quickly explain this. At present, almost all Chromebooks use Android applications in a container called ARC ++ (Android Runtime Container). This container was the early adaptation of what makes Google now smoother with Chrome OS: containers of all shapes and sizes. When Android apps first launched, they built the ARC ++ container and it worked well enough to say Chromebooks ran Android apps, but future work on things like Crostini (Linux containers) , Parallels (Windows via PluginVM containers) and ongoing work for Borealis (Steam) via custom containers) made Google think clearly about how to get Android apps on Chromebooks.
ARCVM was noticed some time ago and we have been talking about it seriously for more than a year now. We knew that Google would eventually replace the old ARC ++ container with a technology much more related to what they do with Linux, Windows, and Steam games (hopefully soon): we just do not know exactly when great change would take place. Since we’ve seen signs of Google paving the way for Android 12 on Chrome OS, there’s been initial rumors that Google’s going to skip the current version of Android again in favor of the following. We never bought that idea, and I’m glad it was not accurate, because Google’s solutions for Android applications will encourage wider use of this time around.
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With Android 11 on the latest Chrome OS 90 Beta version, it has also been seen by Kent Police of Android Police that it is not just an upgrade to Android, but that ARCVM is the container it uses. The screenshot of the build details of my Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is a bit ridiculous to include here, but you can click this link to see the reference in the text if you need further proof. The Android apps I use on this Chromebook are in the new container, and while I don’t really see a difference in performance – good or bad – it’s an important step, as Chrome OS and Android continue to integrate tighter.
First, it should ease Android troubleshooting issues on Chrome OS. Two, it probably makes future versions of Android much more compatible with Chrome OS. And third, it’s finally allowing users to download applications to their Chromebooks if they choose without putting the Chromebook in developer mode. Just like with Android, you need to enable developer mode in the Android settings (tap the build information in the Android settings a few times) and you are ultimately responsible if things go awry, but downloading downloaded apps on your Chromebook no longer requires user put the Chromebook in developer mode and that means things are much safer than before when you sideload Android apps. And much simpler too.
App scale corrected this time
Google tried to put uniform app scale in place in October last year, but things went wrong. The change caused all sorts of problems and eventually Google finally pulled the update and held it back until now. I would guess that the scale issues are much easier to customize in ARCVM versus ACR ++, but it’s simply a guess at this point. Either way, uniform scale is controllable here (in the developer settings for Android), and it makes Android applications on Chromebooks feel so much more at home. The days of small text, strange menus and small elements on the screen are over. Instead, Android apps now feel incredibly original, and I have to say that I absolutely love this change. I mean, look how perfectly the text and menus of the Squid app now match the things at the system level in Chrome OS and how much more original YouTube Music looks compared to the web version.
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Apps like Gmail, Google Photos, and Netflix now feel so much less missed on my Chromebook with these changes, and I like the idea that I could actually start using certain Android versions of apps here and there. However, I’m mostly excited that all the new users are coming to Chromebooks for the first time who will experience a better version of Android on Chrome OS. Are there still occasional hiccups with apps? Certainly! But at least when you launch a new app you want to try, you will not be painfully reminded of the built-in nature of Android on your Chromebook. It just feels so much more at home now.
Dark mode for Android apps is here too
As Chrome OS gets closer and closer to seeing dark and light themes coming across the entire system, it seems that Android 11 may also present the challenge. Although it’s not turned off, you can put your device in the dark mode in the dark mode in the Android 11 developer settings by turning a switch. If you do, apps will accept the dark theme to which they are assigned, just like on your phone. Until Chrome OS finally gets the system-wide dark and light themes in place, it won’t be as effective for most users. However, here are some pictures of it:
For now, it’s about Android 11. I’m currently spending a lot of time on it and we’ll probably put out a video that explains how to get all of this going, and include other things we’ve found along the way, but it’s best to say beneficial update of end users for Android applications on Chrome OS we’ve seen so far. As a guy who tends to do almost everything with web apps, it’s a big problem if I actually want to try Android apps again. For years, they’ve been there as an added bonus, but it really feels like these latest changes are getting Android apps closer to the first-class passengers in the Chromebook train.
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