Run Android Apps in Google Chrome

If you didn’t know, there is a way to run Android apps in Google Chrome.

The tool ARC Welder is developed by Google and it is used for Google Chrome and Chrome OS.

A few words about ARC Welder:

ARC Welder is a developer tool created to help you test and publish your Android Applications to Chrome OS using App Runtime for Chrome (ARC, beta version).

Because it is a new tool, not all of the applications will work, but some of them will work very well.

Things required to run Android apps:

• Google Chrome
• ARC Welder extension for Chrome
• APK file for Android Application

Download ARC Welder extension for Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/arc-welder/emfinbmielocnlhgmfkkmkngdoccbadn

You’ll be redirected to Chrome webstore.

Now click on ADD TO CHROME

Click on Add

Note: It may take some time to install because extension is ~100MB

After that, if ARC Welder didn’t start automatically, you can find it on page:

chrome://apps/

When you start ARC Welder, you’ll see this screen:

You need to Choose directory for writing files

Add your APK file.

Google doesn’t allow to download APK files from Play Store but there is another sources for you to find apps.

You can find some free applications here:

http://www.androidapksfree.com/

Note: Not every file will work in ARC Welder

Choose Orientation and Form factor to view your application.

When you set all parameters, click on Launch App.

Your app should start in a new window, looking like this:

Note: I tried a few apps, but only Hill Climb Racing worked well

And this is how it looks like when you start racing:

ARC Welder supports one application at a time which is not really great, but it’s a new tool and we can hope that it will be added in future versions.

When you try to add new application, it will ask you to remove the one you installed before.