Android on your desktop

Last year, Google’s ARC (App Runtime for Chrome) project provided a way for people to run Android apps on their Chromebooks. It was limited to computers running the Chrome OS operating system (Chromebooks and Chromeboxes) but people quickly hacked it for other platforms. Only a few select apps were packaged to do this.

Yesterday they announced an app packager, Arc Welder, that lets you run Android apps on Linux, Windows and Mac computers as well.

This might be useful for testing Android apps on your PC - without having to run them on a smartphone or tablet. Currently it runs on Android 4.4 (not 5.0).

Here’s a link to an ArsTechnica write-up that goes into much more detail if you’re interested.