One of the best reasons to use Chrome over any other browser is the wide variety of extensions and apps available. Google makes it so you can do everything you’d ever want right in the browser. For the things you still can’t do in Chrome Google is hoping Android apps will bridge the gap. A few weeks ago they released the first batch of apps, but we’re hungry for more.
Right now you can only run few Android apps and they only work with Chrome OS devices. What if you could run any Android app you wanted? And what if all you needed was a Chrome browser? That would be pretty awesome. Luckily it’s not just something we can dream about. Thanks to some clever hackers it’s really possible. Here’s how you can do it!
Why does this work?
First, a little history lesson. The software that makes it possible for Android apps to run in Chrome is called the App Runtime for Chrome, or ARC. This software works in the same way that ART allows apps to run on Android phones or tablets. Using these two runtimes allows developers to make their apps available on Chrome without any rebuilding.
ARC was designed to run only on Chrome OS. Developer vladikoff created something called ARChon Custom Runtime so it can be used in Chrome for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. In the process he also removed the limit on how many Android apps can be run in Chrome. So before we get started we must tip our caps to vladikoff for making this possible.
Install the ARChon Custom Runtime
The first thing we need to do is get the custom version of ARC installed in your browser. In order to do this you will need Chrome version 37 or higher.
- Download ARChon from here
- Unzip the archive
- Go to your extensions page in Chrome by going to Menu > Tools > Extensions
- Enable Developer mode in the top right corner
- Select “Load unpacked extension”
- Choose the folder where you unzipped ARChon
ARChon is now running as a Chrome extension. You will probably see the warning below, but it’s nothing to worry about. Let’s move on to the next step.
Install Android apps
We’re ready to install some Android apps now. This is the real tricky part. Getting an Android app to work in Chrome is not as easy as using the Play Store on your Android device. Luckily the Android/Chrome community is already hard at work finding which apps can work in Chrome. This subreddit and Google Drive spreadsheet are a good place to start looking for apps.
But first, a disclaimer. The distribution of modified apps is not strictly speaking legal. Downloading APKs of free apps is probably not going to make the developer too upset, but paid apps are another story. Don’t use this as an opportunity to steal a bunch of Android apps. Only download APKs from free apps or apps that you already purchased.
Okay, once you have a .zip file containing the APK we are going to install it like we did with ARChon.
- Unzip the file and place the folder somewhere you will remember
- Go back to the Extensions page in Chrome
- Click “Load unpacked extensions”
- Select the folder with the modified APK you downloaded
- The app should now appear in the app launcher in Chrome, with or without the correct app icon. You will likely see another error message on the extensions page, but it’s fine.
What if the app you want to use hasn’t already been modified for Chrome? It’s time to take matters into your own hands. Proceed with caution.
We can’t guarantee that every app you try will work flawlessly. Hopefully Google makes the process easier someday. How cool would it be if the Google Play web store could install apps to Chrome? The line between operating system and browser is getting thinner every day.
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