Google may be working on a new way to run Android apps in Chrome OS

Google may exist working on a new way to run Android apps in Chrome OS

Running Android apps in a virtual machine could better security and open new avenues for developers

Information technology looks similar Google is working on a new manner to contain Android apps in Chrome OS, despite the search behemothic's merits it has no plans to do and then.

9to5Google uncovered a few bits of evidence on the Chromium Gerrit — an online collaboration tool for sharing, editing and merging code into Chromium — that point to a new way to handle Android apps. Dubbed 'ARCVM,' the new app handler borrows heavily from how Chrome OS handles Linux apps.

Currently, Chrome Os uses custom tools developed past Chromium developers called 'crosvm' and 'Termina' to run Linux apps inside a virtual machine (VM). The benefit of this is security, as a VM isolates the application from the rest of the Chromebook organization, and then if something goes wrong, Chrome Os isn't affected.

Nevertheless, at that place are some drawbacks besides. For one, apps inside the VM currently don't have access to the GPU, and then visually intensive tasks like gaming don't work well. Further, using a VM can reduce performance.

As for Android apps, Chrome OS uses the Android Runtime for Chrome (ARC++) to run the apps. However, the Chrome team knows ARC++ is an imperfect solution with some security bug.

If you lot oasis't pieced it together yet, ARCVM stands for ARC Virtual Machine, and some of the Gerrit code suggests it'll leverage crosvm and Termina to run Android apps in a VM. This should solve the security issues with ARC++.

Some other bonus would be the ability to more than easily sideload apps, also as better testing for developers. Like with Linux apps, if anything went wrong, users could just close the VM and not worry about agin furnishings to the organisation.

ARCVM, however, is very much a work in progress. While the prospect is exciting, Google could abolish development earlier it sees the light of day.

Source: Chromium Gerrit Via: 9to5Google