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Canary version of Chrome OS can run split-screen Android apps
June 28, 2025
There are four development levels when it comes toChrome OS: Stable, Beta, Developer, and Canary. Stable is obviously the official roll-out version, and then things get progressively more buggy and experimental the further you go down. Canary is the first rung, the level where the future features of Chrome OS are tested out in all their buggy, half-developed glory.
Video footage hit the internetover the weekend of one of these early Canary Chrome OS versionsrunning Android appsin split-screen mode. Now that the concept has been proven, we can expect the feature to roll out in a stable Chrome OS update, probably Chrome OS version 66 (although version 65 indeed is possible). We actually heardreports about this happeninga few weeks ago, and it looks like those rumors proved to be true.
You can see the video below of aSamsung Chromebook Prorunning theGoogle Play Storeand the Voice Recorder app, both of which are native Android apps:
Further along in the video, the presenter Robby Payne also runs the Google Play Store side-by-side withthe Chrome browser. Since the Chrome browser in Chrome OS is a native app (not an Android app), the video proves that you’re able to split-screen Android apps with Chrome OS apps, too.
Granted, both apps will have to be split-screen-compatible. Some Android apps do not have this feature, so they wouldn’t work. However, the video does not give an example of what kind of error would present if you were to attempt to split-screen an app that didn’t support it.
In the video, the presenter says that we should see the split-screen Android app feature arrive in the summer, which would once again most likely be Chrome OS version 66.
WithChromebooks running Android appsand now featuring split-screen abilities, the line continues to blur between what is an Android device and what is a Chrome OS device. In the future, Chromebooks will increasingly feature a tablet mode either via a 360-hinge or fully-detachable screen, and the line will continue to blur even more.
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