Here Are the Chromebooks Getting Android Apps Next

Google has said that all upcoming Chromebooks will run Android apps, but what about the one you already have? Fortunately, Google updated its official list of Android-capable Chromebooks, giving some clues as to when older Chrome OS notebooks will get this powerful feature.

This change, first reported by SlashGear, classifies three kinds of Android support for Chromebooks: Planned, Beta Channel and Stable Channel. Stable Channel Chromebooks include the Acer Chromebook R11, Asus' Chromebook Flip C100PA and Google's 2015 Chromebook Pixel.

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The vast majority (83 to be precise) of the listed Chromebooks are still marked as "Planned," which reeks of the "it's coming eventually" messaging we've heard about Android on Chrome OS for months. The silver lining of this news is the Beta Channel classification, as Google's hinting that those models are further along.

Currently, the only Chromebooks marked as Beta Channel are the Asus Chromebook Flip C302 and Acer Chromebook R13, (two notebooks we gave positive reviews to, with the Flip C302 earning an Editor's Choice award). While Beta Channel Chromebook owners may be excited to install Android support on their devices, you might want to wait for those to become Stable Channel, as we've noticed that apps can stutter and suffer other performance defects during the Beta stage.

Google doesn't want us to get our hopes up too high, noting that Beta classification "does not mean that it will be available in the Stable channel on the next release of Chrome OS."

Oddly enough, the document lists the Samsung Chromebook Pro as planned, even though it ships with out-of-the-box support for Android apps. The Samsung Chromebook Plus, the pro's less-powerful sibling, is marked as Stable Channel.