Google Ran Chrome OS On An Android Phone, And It Was The Coolest Thing
Earlier in the week, Mishaal Rahman from Android Authority reported on how Google held a private event attended by many Android partners. There, they showed Chromium OS, the open-source variant of everyone’s favorite Chrome OS, running on a Pixel 8 with Android 15. To achieve this, Google built a virtual machine on the Pixel device and then ran a special build of Chromium OS, called Ferrochrome, on that.
The objective of this was to show off the powerful capabilities of the Android operating system to these Android partners, particularly how good it is as virtualization. They even showed how the Pixel 8 could be connected to an external monitor and be used in desktop mode. It was like having a Chromebook in your pocket!
Of course, when news of this broke, everyone was excited to hear that Chrome OS could potentially be making its way to Google Pixel devices with Android 15. It’d likely be a superior alternative to having to use the native Android desktop mode, especially as Chrome OS is better established as an operating system to use on bigger screens with a keyboard and a mouse. That would have been cool, wouldn’t it?
However, The Company Has Made It Clear That This Was Just A Tech Demo
Unfortunately, you know where this is going already. Google has come out to say that the entire thing was just a proof of concept and not a sign of things to come. To be honest, this isn’t too surprising when you think about it, especially as this was basically shown off in a closed-door event and not for the world to see. After all, Google had many eyes on them during Google I/O and there would have been no better time to make that clear.
So, Google is never going to give us an Android version of Chrome, which is a true tragedy. However, it doesn’t mean that there’s no hope for you if you really want to run Chrome OS that badly. After all, the guys at Android Authority were actually able to get it running on their own.
This just means that your dreams aren’t entirely dashed. Google won’t be rolling it out officially (at least not anytime soon), but you’ll still be able to try it out as long as you have the necessary tech knowledge for it.
