How to run Android applications in using google chrome in any Operating System.

In last article we reviewed top 5 Android emulators for Windows OS. But what if you are not running the most comfortable Windows OS? Is there any way to run your favorite Android applications on Linux or MacOS? Can we run Android applications without using Android emulators? The answer to all these questions is YES!Yes you can run whats app on any operating system just by using the google's chrome web browser.

Google has developed an application called ARC Welder. ARC stands for App Runtime for Chrome. The ARC is primarily developed for the Google's operating system for notebooks known as Chrome OS. But this app is available for using with Google's chrome web browser also. This is free app like most of the Google's services for individuals.

What you need?

To setup the you need following three things only:

1. Any laptop with any operating systems with chrome browser installed on it.
2. ARC Welder App
3. APK files for an Android application that you intend to run.

Steps to install and run Android applications in Chrome browser:

1. First of all open your chrome browser and download the ARC Welder app using the link provided in second step.
2. If you are using ARC Welder for first time then it will download some necessary files which are big enough; but this is for first time only.
3. Setup the local directory on your computer which will be used to install apps and write and read for ARC Welder app.
4. Now you have to download the ".apk" files for the Android application that you intend to run on your chrome. You can get ".apk" file for most of the Android apps from sites like apkmirror.com.
5. Now click on "ADD APK" option in your ARC Welder app and point it to the ".apk" files downloaded in above step.
6. Next click on "Download ZIP" and save it to the local directory you have created for ARC Welder app.
7. Go to the ARC Welder app directory and extract the downloaded ZIP files.
8. You have to enable the "Developers Mode" in your chrome browser. For this go to Window >> Extensions and check the box labled as "Developer Mode"
9. Click on option "Load Unpacked extension" and provide the path to the directory where you have extracted the ZIP files in previous step.
10. When you download the ARC Welder app one launchpad to launch all the google services will also be downloaded. Click on that icon of Android app to start running the app.

Now the point is that it is claimed that this app is for developers to test their own Android applications but don't you think google is trying beat the monopoly of Windows? May be or may not be. This application still in development and it has bugs which will be fixed in it's version. Also this application is not properly running and I got some problem while setting it up!. Many users have also claimed that this application crashes when they tried to open the apk files! (Courtesy comments section chromestore) But as these bugs may be fixed in next version, it will be greate option to run Android applications. Meanwhile if you find the setup difficult you can try one of the Android emulator for windows.