Philatelic Android Apps on Your Desktop

(Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook)

App Runtime for Chrome

Recently Google published the App Runtime for Chrome (ARC) and lets you run your favorite Android apps on Chrome OS or on your desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook) as an extension in the Chrome browser.

This page describes the installation instructions for these Android apps on Windows, Mac and Linux.

When you are running Chrome OS (on a Chromebook) then you can install the apps directly from the Chrome Web Store, no need to follow these instructions.

Installation Instructions

The instructions are for a Windows system, but similar instructions apply for a Mac or Linux system, although I did not test this.

Step 1 - Download the latest version of Chrome

If you don't have Chrome installed, you can download it from here.

Version 41+ of Chrome is required. To check the version, enter chrome://chrome/ in the address bar or select About Google Chrome from the main menu.

Get the latest version of Chrome when the version is not 41+.

Step 2 - Install App Runtime for Chrome

Install App Runtime for Chrome from here (and click on the ADD TO CHROME button)

It is a huge extension, so it will take some time to install.

After successful installation it will show:

In reviews I read (many) problems with the installation and especially error messages on manifest.json.

When you see these type of errors, you'd better restart the Chrome browser or even restart your system.

Step 3 - Download and extract the Android app packages

The Android app packages are zipped files: the Great Britain Stamp Catalog can be found here and the United States Stamp Catalog can be found here .

After downloading, the contents of the packages should be extracted at a location that is later not moved, renamed or deleted; use for example a new My Extensions folder in the My Documents folder:

You can use any other location as long as you do not move, rename or delete the location.

Step 4 - Install the extensions

To install extensions, enter chrome://extensions/ in the address bar or select Extensions from the More tools menu in the main menu.

Now check the Developer mode and additional buttons appear.

Now click the Load unpacked extension... button, select the folder which was extracted before in the My Extensions folder and click OK.

Repeat the same for the other app and after this, the extensions are visible.

Step 5 - Launch the apps

If the app launcher is not in the task bar then start the app launcher as follows:

When the App Launcher is not visible, then you can download it here.

Click on the app launcher and select one of the catalog apps:

By clicking right on an icon and then selecting Create shortcuts..., you can create various shortcuts to quickly start the app.

For example in the task bar:

The apps in action

The Great Britain Stamp Catalog:

The United States Stamp Catalog:

Final thoughts

ARC brings Android apps to the desktop but is still in beta version and not all apps are able to run full-featured on the desktop. For these catalog apps, as fas as I can see, only the Email functionality doesn't work.

The above installation of apps is far from user friendly. Besides that, updates are not possible without loss of app data.

Nevertheless, you have now two Android apps running on a desktop, and I think that is pretty amazing and really cool.

I did not try this on Mac and Linux, so I can only hope that this also works.

You can mail me at psquareh@eperforationgauge.com

Last update: Saturday, April 4, 2015

Final update: Don't blame me if it doesn't work!