ChromeOS for Android Dev — not yet but soon(ish).

The only Apple device I took with me to the Android Dev Summit this year was the macbook charger (I like the interchangeable connectors). My dream has been to move away from macbooks and shift to ChromeOS as my main devices for Android Development. I wrote about this already some time ago.

I have an Asus Chromebox at home and an i5 Pixel Slate on the go. Both devices run Android Studio and can connect to external devices with USB to run the apps I write (there is no emulator support).

So. All is good then? My macbook is in ebay already? Unfortunately no.

There are very positive signs about the development of Android Studio on ChromeOS. All screenshots in presentations in Android Dev Summit were framed to Chrome OS.

However, when we jumped to demos we were back on macos.

Overall, I feel that this is a promising development but also a very clear indication that we’re not quite there yet. The reality is that Android Studio on ChromeOS just isn’t quite ready for prime time. This does correspond to my experiences as well.

An average Chromebook is not powerful enough to run gradle in speed that is needed for day-to-day development. I can run it on my Pixel Slate but it takes ages. And while my Chromebox is fast enough it there are other issues that hinder one’s effectiveness on the platform like login to AS not working (and therefore Firebase tools not being available), for example.

That all said, there’s a real feel of momentum. I had a great chat in the Google I/O with the ChromeOS team and continued the discussion in the Android Dev Summit.

The team is very much aware of the issues. They’re motivated to make the platform great and have the skills to do so. And, as far as I understand, have the funding to make it happen.

There are many reasons why things take time, of course. On ChromeOS there’s added complications as the intent to keep the platform highly stable, safe and consistent comes into play. The team can’t simply rush the features needed to make AS run in Crostini perfectly without thinking and exploring the consequences.

I was also very pleased to hear that the apparent consistency issue between the Linux container, Android apps and ChromeOS apps is high on the priority list of the ChromeOS team. This is not an easy issue to solve but is imperative for a smooth user experience.

A very direct proof of things really happening is the improvements in the upcoming M80 release of ChromeOS which will now allow us to deploy apps directly to the device without enabling the developer mode. This might sound like a small thing on the surface but it’s sending a clear message that Google is paying attention and working on this.

Chromebooks are gaining traction in the non-tech population. Optimising our apps to run on them is the step one. Even if you’d not be interested in running AS on the devices you should get one of these laptops to test your apps on. Once M80 launches everything becomes even easier.

A Chromebook is an amazing tool to evaluate, develop and refine your responsive layouts, for example. Simply run the app and resize the window to whatever size and you can quickly evaluate your design’s viability on that size.

Take look at this Android Dev Summit talk on much more about larger screens:

So, a lot of positive signs. Some concrete steps. Still, there is no denying that the current state is not good enough for these devices to be my daily driver.

I will be moving to Linux for couple of years. But I will be back.