Chromebooks may beat phones to some Android O features

You might get a taste of what Android O has to offer on a Chromebook before it comes to your phones — with just a minor catch.

Senior director of product management for Chrome OS Kan Liu say that future Android updates may make its way to Chromebook devices before coming to phones, according to a report from The Verge.

Recently, Chromebooks have begun to lean towards a sort of hybrid of its native Chrome OS and Android — as seen with the upcoming Chromebook Pro, which Google expects to release May 28 with support for apps running Android Nougat.

 In the report, Liu explains that Chrome OS' release cycle is faster than Android's dessert-themed updates, meaning that some Android O updates for apps could potentially come to Chromebooks emulating Android before coming to Android phones themselves.

Beta be careful

However, the big disclaimer is that since any new features wouldn't be rolling out to the phone-using public just yet, they would be beta versions of those apps.

That said, Liu describes that apps on Android are, for the most part, ready to go for Chromebooks, and that the occasional user launching a beta version of an Android O-compatible app shouldn't be too much of an issue. 

For those with phones who want to be on the bleeding edge of Android O, you can still sign up for the OS' beta and developer preview, should you own a Google Pixel, Google Pixel XL, Google Pixel C, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, or a Nexus Player.

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May 19, 2017 at 06:26AM
Parker Wilhelm