ARChos Lets You Run Android Apps in Google Chrome Browser

Not too long ago, Google added the ability to run select Android applications on Chrome OS. While Google’s OS for more traditional computers is great in some use cases, it is generally limited for the most part to Chromebooks. And let’s face it; the number of Chromebooks is very low compared to Android devices.

That said, the number of computers that can run Google Chrome browser is a totally different story. It’s most likely the most popular browser among Android users. Canadian developer Vlad Filippov created a custom version of Android Runtime for Google Chrome called ARChos. This Chrome addon allows users to run Android apps almost natively on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS.

The application or game that can be launched from the browser must be unpacked first. Luckily, the developer created a tool that allows for such operations with a few command prompt commands. Perhaps in the future releases, the process of unpacking will be a bit easier than the currently available method.

Sounds interesting? You can try it now. First of all you need to download this ZIP file, extract it, and load it in the extension manager in Chrome. Bear in mind that the developer mode must be enabled in order to load custom extensions. After loading the runtime, you can try to load applications or games. Vlad Filippov shared a modified version of the 2048 game to demonstrate how this technology works in practice. Everything should work on Google Chrome or Chromium 37, but if you have issues, try Google Chrome Beta or even the Canary version of this browser.

If you want to try ARChon on Chromebook, you must replace the official runtime developed by Google. Of course you can always uninstall it and revert to the Web Store one.

The possibility of running Android apps on Chrome browser is definitely very exciting, and shows why Android is one of the greatest mobile operating systems. ARChos is still at a very early stage, but it’s a good start to have a cross-platform solution that we were searching for the very long time.

You can learn more about the project by visiting the ARChos Github page. It’s full of manuals and instructions that will help you to configure everything properly. What do you think about this project? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

[via OMG Chrome]

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source: xdadevelopers