This Google decision will impact millions of users

Google officially confirmed it: Chromeos and Android should merge into a single platform. This change would affect millions of users.

Marcel Horzenek / t-online

Google confirmed for the first time officially that the company wishes to merge its two Android and Chromeos operating systems into a single platform. Sameer Samat, president of the Android ecosystem at Google, spoke on this project during an interview with the technical magazine Techradar.

A gradual rapprochement of systems

This confirmation ends years of speculation on a possible merger of the two Google systems. In June, the company announced that it wanted to develop Chromeos largely on the basis of Android. Chromebooks can already run many Android applications.

For its part, the Android system is gradually receiving typical office operating systems, for example, an office mode, adjustable windows and better support for external screens. The current beta version of Android 16 already offers an office mode based on the Samsung Dex function, which allows you to use Android devices as desktop computers.

Development must be accelerated

This rapprochement should allow Google to accelerate the development of new features. The group wants to create a stronger alternative to the iPados and Apple macOS, especially for tablets and laptops. Developers could in the future create applications for all types of devices, from smartwatch to laptop, using a single software package.

A dozen years ago, from internal projects to Google aimed at such a merger. The project of the time, whose code name was “Andromeda”, was however abandoned.

Chromeos is currently working on Google Chromebooks, Chromebit and Chromebox devices. Android was originally developed for smartphones, then extended to tablets. The functions of the two systems are already riding in part.

Samat did not indicate a concrete calendar for the complete implementation of the merger. A new variant of the Chrome browser with extension support for Android desktop systems would still be under development.

Translated and adapted from German by Léa Krejci