Android Studio On Chromebooks a Sign of Google’s Maturing Ecosystem

We may earn a commission for purchases made using our links.

Back when news of Andromeda first arrived, we discussed how Google would need to bring Android Studio to Chrome OS if they wanted to succeed in their goals of creating a single platform that fulfills the needs of most of their users, and it looks like they may finally be following through.

If Google wants their ecosystem to succeed as a one-stop-shop for their users, they need to create a first-rate development environment in that ecosystem, and the first step towards that is making development possible at all. A recent patch submitted to the Chromium OS codebase appears to lay the foundation, potentially bringing support for installing the Android Studio binary with Wayland support into Chrome OS if it gets merged in. That being said, it is still considered to be a work in progress and it’s far from being ready for mainstream use.

Unfortunately Android Studio can be quite resource intensive, with many of the current Chomebooks not having a powerful-enough CPU power or enough RAM to run it well. That being said, while most Chromebooks are a bit on the weak side for software development at the moment, Google does have a solution to that: Chrome OS also runs on the less well-known Chromeboxes and Chromebases, which are small form factor desktop PCs and All-in-ones, respectively. These devices have the thermal headroom necessary to pack a bit more power, and could potentially be used as a platform for future Chrome OS development devices.

It will be quite interesting to see how this plays out, and what effects it has on both Android, Chrome OS, and the rest of the computer market.