Google’s Chromebooks are handy workstations, but they’ve often been regarded as extended browsers. Running Chrome OS, the said devices are capable enough to accomplish most lightweight tasks but don’t pack the necessary tools for other heavy ones. Currently, it doesn’t hold much importance in a developer’s life but could soon come in extremely handy as Google could be working on a Chrome OS version of Android Studio.
Yes, could be. There is currently no official confirmation of the existence of this version of Android Studio from Google, but a commit in the Chromium source repository points to such possibilities. This commit, which was made a few days ago, makes direct references to the IDE (integrated development environment) and how you require to install the necessary32-bitt libraries to launch the software. Also, there are references to Wayland, a simple replacement for X, which played a significant role in porting Android apps to Chrome OS last year.
Further, this commit in the Chromium project has been marked as a work-in-progress (“WIP”). This means that either Google has just started work on developing Android Studio for their only desktop operating system or are already neck-deep into the development of the same for release (or announcement) at the upcoming Google I/O 2017 conference. And it will not be an easy feat to achieve as we have already learned from the porting of the Google Play Store to Chrome OS, which took almost forever to execute.
Currently, developers are required to turn to Windows, Linux or MacOS desktops to build their Android apps. But, with the addition of support for both Android apps (which arrived just recently) and Android Studio to Chrome OS could attract some developers to make the switch — for the ease of development and testing on the same plane. Though the said IDE is quite resource intensive, Google might be looking to iron out the quirks and bring it to Chrome OS in the coming months.
But, let us take a wild assumption and say that Google engineers might be porting Android Studio to the desktop for use on their much rumored hybrid desktop operating system called Andromeda. It is expected to be an amalgamation of Android and Chrome OS, which aims to bring together the best of both worlds. And the introduction of the coding environment to this operating system could be quite fruitful for consumers. However, there is currently no word on whether Google is actually working on a hybrid OS or not.
