What if one of Google’s two flagship OSes disappeared? According to persistent rumors, Chrome OS is ready to retire and could be replaced by Android on tablets and PCs.
If Google has largely established itself on the smartphone market thanks to Android, the tablet sector is still mainly dominated by Apple. The fault lies with an Android ecosystem which has long not been designed for devices with large screens. But Google was, it seems, preparing to kick in the anthill by radically changing tactics.
As explained by sources who have engaged in Android Authoritythe search giant would be on the verge of “merging” Android and Chrome OS to create an operating system that would be as comfortable on a smartphone as on a tablet or PC. The idea would be to take the best elements of both OSes, namely the productivity focus of Chrome OS and the multimedia ecosystem of Android, to create a new version of Google’s mobile operating system capable of searching for problems with iPadOS (and maybe even Windows or macOS, who knows…).
Chromedroid ? AndrOS ?
This Android on steroids would in reality “absorb” Chrome OS to give birth to a more versatile operating system capable, ideally, of attracting the attention of developers and finally extending the field of possibilities for the OS to the little green robot.
While we do not yet know what form the integration of Chrome OS into Android will take, we can imagine that the Chrome app on mobile would become more versatile and powerful, particularly through the possible arrival of extensions on mobile. Better support for multi-screen and windowed applications would also be included.
The logical next step for Google
If such a change in policy would more or less sign the end of Chrome OS in its current form, the merger of the two OS would only be the logical continuation of a fundamental movement started several months ago by Google. Last April, Google restructured itself by merging the Android, Pixel, Chrome OS teams and others to create a “Platforms and devices ».
To go further
Chrome OS Flex is available for everyone, enough to boost your old PC and Mac
A few weeks later, the company announced that Chrome OS would take software components from Android to integrate them into the operating system (in particular the Linux kernel on which Android is based). Add to that that Chrome OS can already run certain Android applications and you get platforms whose limits are already more blurred than expected.
