Google Chrome OS to be merged with Android: reports

Google will merge Chrome and Android OS and could introduce the new single OS by 2017, says a report in WSJ.

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Chrome OS will be merged with Android, says a new report.

Google plans to merge its Chrome OS for laptops with Android, says a report in the Wall Street Journal, which quotes people who are familiar with the company’s plans.

According to the report, Google engineers have been working on the plan for the last two years and the new single OS will be launched in 2017, although an early build could be revealed by next year. The new version will allow PC users to access the Google Play Store apps as well. Chrome OS currently has its own app store.

Interestingly, Google Chrome, Chromecast and Android’s senior VP Hiroshi Lockheimer took to Twitter after the report and said that the company is seeing a “ton of momentum for Chromebooks” and that they are still “very committed to Chrome OS.”

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Chrome OS currently runs on Google’s Internet-connected laptops and offers a more web-browser based experience for computing. Google has partnered with companies like Acer, Samsung, HP, etc in the past to introduce these Chromebooks. Recently in India, Google launched two new budget Chromebooks from Xolo and Nexian starting at Rs 12,999.

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Where the merger of Android and Chrome OS goes, it has been talked about in the media for sometime now. In 2013, Google had put Sundar Pichai (now the CEO) as in-charge of both Chrome OS and Android, which had first sparked speculations.

The WSJ report says that the “move is a long-awaited recognition that the different computing approaches embodied by Android and Chrome are no longer relevant to Google.”

Another report on The Verge, which also says that Chrome and Android will merge, quotes a Google spokesperson as saying that there is no Chrome OS kill-off being planned.

Read more: Xolo Chromebook review

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