Chromebook 101: How to use Android apps on your Chromebook

One of the benefits offered by Chromebooks is the ability to run many of your favorite Android apps alongside Chrome OS windows. For the most part, any Chromebook launching in 2019 or later will run Android apps; If you have an older system, Google has a long list of Chromebooks that can run Android apps, but it’s not hard to see if yours is one of them by doing the following:

• Go to Settings (click on the clock in the lower right corner and select the gear icon).
• Click on the apps link in the left menu.

• In the main window, find Google Play Store. (It should be near the top.) If it’s there and prompts you to Install apps and games from Google Play on your Chromebookthen you are good to go.

Now all you have to do is look for the familiar Play Store logo in your launcher, either by clicking on the Launcher icon in the lower left corner of the screen or by using the Launcher button on your keyboard just above the left Shift key. This will take you to the Play Store, where you can find and install your favorite Android apps on your Chromebook.

Android apps you have installed will also appear on the launcher, just like any other Chrome OS app. For example, when I installed the Words With Friends 2 and Elevate Android apps on a Chromebook, their icons appeared in the launcher alongside all of the Chrome OS apps.

(Note: The first time you access the Google Play Store, you may see a pop-up asking you to Complete account setup by adding a payment option. Don’t panic. If you don’t want to add payment information, you don’t have to. Just hit Skip.)

You can even select many of the same options for Android apps as you would if they were on your phone. On the Applications page, select Google Play Store > Manage Android preferencesand you’ll see an Android-like menu that lets you choose whether you want notifications.

A word of warning: Android apps that have been optimized for use on a Chromebook, meaning many of the more popular apps, will look and act like normal Chromebook apps. However, apps that haven’t been optimized will essentially appear in a phone screen format, so they won’t be as usable – although they should, with a few exceptions, still work.

Updated June 10, 2022, 11:30 a.m. ET: This article was originally published on October 9, 2019 and has been updated to reflect changes to the operating system.