Custom ARC ARChon lets you run Android apps on Chrome Browser on any Desktop OS

If you recollect, few days ago Google has begun introducing Android apps to the Chrome Web store which allows you to run Android apps on Chromebook based on Chrome OS. Google has made available only some of the Android apps as an initial work around and we felt that it was cool. If you also feel that was cool, then get ready to get astounded. Canadian developer Vlad Filippov has removed few barriers from the Android Runtime for Chrome (ARC) and made all the apps available on any desktop OS running Chrome browser. Isn’t that Cool?

Google actually developed ARC to give the Chrome OS users a taste of Android apps and we think Google made a safer move by restricting the compatible apps to a few. But as an Android enthusiasts, we always love to hack the boundaries and explore the whole content without any restriction. Thanks to Vlad Filippov, for creating a custom ARC which will allow us to run all the Android apps on any desktop OS running Chrome browser without any restrictions.

The hack is made possible because the ARC was just an extension for Chrome OS, but it was built using Native Client, a Google project that allows Chrome to run native code safely within a web browser. The Native client is meant to be cross-platform, but Google restricted it to Chrome OS only by using ARC Chrome Web store which flagged the desktop version of chrome browser as incompatible which made the Android apps run on Chrome OS only rather than the Chrome browser on any desktop OS. This hack has lifted that barrier to make things possible.

You need to have Google Chrome 37 or later version to support this hack. ARC doesn’t run the actual Android app packages which are in .apk format, they need to be converted into a Chrome extension to spoof the Chrome that these apps are native and this takes a lot of effort. But the developer created a tool called chromeos-apk that will do the conversions automatically lifting off any hard work you are supposed to do.

Learn more about the project by visiting the ARChon Github page. It’s full of manuals and instructions that will help you to configure everything properly. So now apply this hack in your PC and run Android apps on your Chrome browser.

So, are you excited about running Android apps on your PC without any emulators?

Express your views in the comments section below.

Via XDA

3 Comments

  1. i will be excited if someone at last manages to remove that stuff from chrome and just gives me a native dalvik/art-vm i can install on any linux-version without hassle (i.e.: install on debian/ubuntu via apt)

  2. i will be excited if someone at last manages to remove that stuff from chrome and just gives me a native dalvik/art-vm i can install on any linux-version without hassle (i.e.: install on debian/ubuntu via apt)

  3. i will be excited if someone at last manages to remove that stuff from chrome and just gives me a native dalvik/art-vm i can install on any linux-version without hassle (i.e.: install on debian/ubuntu via apt)

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