Katarzyna Petru
Google has officially confirmed something that the industry has been talking about for months. Chrome OS and Android will be merged into one system. And although this was not announced in the form of a spectacular conference, the words of Sameer Samat – the president of the Android ecosystem – leave no doubt. "We intend to merge Chrome OS and Android into a single platform," he told a TechRadar journalist, while also asking why he is using Apple devices. It sounds like a little jab, but it could be the beginning of a big change.
Android swallows Chrome OS. Not the other way around
Contrary to appearances, this is not about creating a completely new system from scratch. As reported earlier, Android will become the base, and Chrome OS will be transferred to it. In other words: there won't be a hybrid, there won't be a "third system" - just a more powerful Android with features known from laptops and Chromebooks. This is where Android 16 comes in, which is already receiving desktop mode, better management of external screens, and more flexible application windows.
Google is asking how we use laptops. And it's not a coincidence
Samat didn't share this information for no reason – Google is collecting data. They want to know what laptops are used for today, how people work, what is annoying. This is typical for a company that tests everything on a small scale before pushing a novelty into the mainstream. And it seems that we are already very close. A systemic change may happen sooner than we expect.
Reactions? Mixed. People are happy, but they also don't trust
Almost half of the surveyed readers (according to earlier polls) support Google's decision. But the other side is equally loud – those who fear greater hardware requirements, problems with updates, and that Google… simply won’t deliver. It must be admitted: the history of Android on tablets and Chromebooks has not always been a success. And now everything will have to be combined.
What’s next?
We don’t yet know the release date, but the moment Google speaks about it loudly is a signal: we are in the home stretch. The next versions of Android will be increasingly "laptop-like," and manufacturers' hardware will be more ready for the change. Is this the end of Chromebooks as we know them? Rather, it’s their evolution. The only question is: do we really want this?
