Android apps for Chromebooks: The essentials

We’ve heard a lot about how Android apps on Chrome OS are an enormous deal, however once you first end up staring on the Google Play Store on a dual-purpose machine, it may be robust to know the place to start.Chromebooks had been already fairly succesful with out Android apps within the equation, in any case, and lots of the Play Store’s hottest titles are additionally accessible in web-app equivalents. Sure, you could possibly set up the Google Docs Android app or the Twitter Android app onto a Chromebook, however you’d get higher and extra full experiences by utilizing both service’s web-based counterpart. So why trouble?The trick is to determine which Android apps truly improve Chrome OS in a significant approach — both by filling in a niche within the platform or by including one thing new and sensible into the expertise. But in a sea of overlapping titles and mobile-specific utilities, singling out such a variety is not at all times simple.That’s why I’m right here to assist. I’ve spent numerous hours dwelling with Chromebooks and utilizing them as each productiveness and leisure instruments. I’ve explored the accessible Android app choices and pinpointed the packages that develop a Chromebook’s capabilities in measures that matter. I’ve even gone on enterprise journeys carrying nothing however an Android-app-enabled Chromebook for all of my work and (ahem) procrastination wants.Start with the titles under — all free, except in any other case famous — and watch your Chromebook remodel from a cloud-centric laptop computer right into a platform-defying all-purpose machine.(When you are carried out right here, by the way in which, remember to contemplate some Linux apps in your Chromebook, too. Those can additional prolong your laptop’s productiveness powers — in some totally different however equally attention-grabbing methods.)Documents, spreadsheets, and different file-oriented workMicrosoft Word, Excel, and PowerPointWe’ll kick issues off with the obvious of the bunch: If Google Docs does not lower it for you and Microsoft’s Office Online providing is equally insufficient, the Android variations of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are exactly what you want. They’re totally featured and wonderfully acquainted, so long as you will have an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 subscription — and so they fill a previously unaddressable void left by Microsoft’s lackluster internet choices. JR Raphael/IDG
Microsoft’s Android Office apps are a good way to get a extra succesful phrase processing expertise on a Chromebook. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
OfficeSuite ProWant a desktop-caliber workplace suite with out the recurring payment? MobiSystems’ OfficeSuite Pro is the next-best factor to Microsoft’s standard-bearer. The app prices $20, plus an extra $10 for a font pack you will in all probability need. (And bear in mind: Once bought, you should utilize this system on any Android machine as nicely.)Xodo PDF Reader & EditorXodo does one factor and does it nicely: It makes it lifeless easy to write down on, spotlight, and annotate PDFs. If you’ll want to fill out types by hand or mark up the occasional doc in your Chromebook, this free and easy-to-use app — additionally my advice for the perfect PDF manipulation program for Android units — is the one for you.Solid ExplorerThe native Chrome OS Files app is ok, however you can provide your self higher file administration energy with Solid Explorer, an Android file supervisor app that is optimized for Chrome OS help. Solid Explorer means that you can use a two-panel view for straightforward dragging and dropping of recordsdata between a number of places — together with your common native storage, the realm of your storage devoted to Android app use, and cloud-based storage from quite a lot of appropriate suppliers. It can hook up with your individual private or firm FTP or WebDav server, too, and it permits you to add further layers of encryption to recordsdata in any of these places. JR Raphael/IDG
Among different superior options, Solid Explorer supplies two panels for straightforward dragging and dropping between places. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
Note administrationMicrosoft OneNoteOneNote customers, take be aware: The Android model of OneNote — my decide for the perfect fully-featured Android note-taking app, notably — one-ups its web-based equal by offering offline entry to your notes together with enhanced handwriting help. If you are utilizing OneNote with a Chromebook, it is nicely price having round.Google KeepGoogle’s note-taking service has a superbly purposeful internet model, however the Keep Android app presents some noteworthy benefits. First and foremost, identical to with OneNote, the Android model of Keep permits you to view and work together with your notes even once you’re offline — which may very well be a worthwhile choice to have, at the least in some theoretical future world the place we’re all touring once more.Beyond that, the Keep Android app is very well-suited to on-screen scribbling — with a stylus, your finger, or no matter appendage you like — due to its built-in instruments and settings for controlling the colour and thickness of your “ink.” It even has the power so as to add quite a lot of paper-like grid strains into your notes to make them really feel like extra of a pure writing setting.NeboTalking of taking notes by hand, this $12 note-taking utility is a must have for anybody who makes use of a Chromebook with a stylus. Nebo offers you a robust set of instruments for writing and drawing immediately in your machine’s display after which having your phrases transformed into common, copy-and-paste-ready textual content. You may even draft diagrams and have the app translate your whole work into plain textual content, HTML, or a completely formatted Word doc that is able to be shared together with your group. JR Raphael/IDG
Nebo interprets your whole stylus-made scribbles into common formatted textual content. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
SquidSquid is much less about changing your handwritten notes into textual content and extra about supplying you with a strong canvas for scrawling out information and leaving it in that pen-created kind. It’s specifically optimized for low latency with stylus use and fully vector-based, too, so you possibly can create prime quality, totally scalable photographs. And something you make throughout the app will be exported as a JPG, PDF, or PNG file and even forged to a Chromecast-compatible display for an on-the-fly presentation.The app’s fundamentals are free whereas sure superior options — the power to import PDFs, as an example, together with the choices to make use of the highlighter and form instruments for enhancing — can be found as a part of an non-compulsory $1-a-month or $10-a-year premium subscription.Communication and groupMicrosoft OutlookStuck dwelling in Microsoft’s e mail universe? Leave Outlook’s lackluster internet model behind and provides your self the pleasure of utilizing the Android app as a substitute. It supplies offline entry to your e mail and is noticeably sooner than its browser-based brother.MessengerIf you depend on Facebook’s Messenger system for any type of skilled communication, utilizing the standalone Android app is infinitely higher than protecting the complete Facebook web site open all day (or choosing up your telephone each time a brand new message is available in). It’s Facebook messaging with out the remainder of Facebook, in essence. What extra do you’ll want to know?Google CalendarGoogle Calendar’s internet interface could really feel acquainted, however the Android model of the service has the extra modern and touch-friendly interface — and it really works offline, too, one thing the online model surprisingly nonetheless does not do. Especially in case you’re accustomed to utilizing Calendar in your telephone, you will recognize having the app accessible in your Chromebook, even when just for occasional use.TrelloTrello lovers, pay attention up: You’ll completely wish to have Trello’s Android app in your Chromebook for any touch-oriented organizational work. It’ll make it really feel such as you’re engaged on a pill as a substitute of clumsily making an attempt to claw round a web site together with your finger — and it will allow you to entry your knowledge once you’re offline. JR Raphael/IDG
The Trello Android app presents some distinctive benefits over its extra conventional types, particularly in the case of contact enter. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
Google TasksGoogle’s personal Tasks service is not probably the most highly effective process supervisor round, however in case you like utilizing it, the Tasks Android app can be a sensible addition to your Chromebook setup. It permits you to deal with Tasks as its personal standalone program, for one — versus simply being bundled into Gmail, because it usually is on the desktop — and it is able to working offline.General productiveness and safetyAuthyTwo-factor authentication is a crucial technique to shield your most vital accounts, and Authy’s the most effective choices on the market for producing and managing 2FA codes. If you need to have the ability to entry codes out of your Chromebook along with your telephone, the Authy Android app is the way in which to do it.Google OneThere’s no scarcity of commendable VPN companies that’ll run immediately inside Chrome, however in case you’re already paying for Google’s Google One subscription service — which provides you further storage throughout all Google companies for as little as two bucks a month — you mechanically get entry to Google’s personal VPN for encrypting your whole knowledge transfers. And whereas Google does not actively promote this reality, you possibly can set up the Google One Android app in your Chromebook and activate that function.Who knew?!Google MapsMaps’ internet interface is not any slouch, however the Android app offers you a slew of time-saving contact gestures in addition to helpful extras like site visitors alert notifications. And — yup, you guessed it — it may well work offline as wanted. JR Raphael/IDG
The Google Maps app is indispensable for each touch-oriented work and offline entry on a Chromebook. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
Duet DisplayPossibly you employ your Chromebook along side a Windows or Mac laptop. If so, Duet Display is simply the device for you. Install the app in your Chrome OS machine after which set up the companion program in your different laptop, and your Chromebook can flip right into a wi-fi second show in your Mac or PC. Hey, no want to decide on — you possibly can have the perfect of each worlds!Firefox or OperaSpeaking of getting the perfect of each worlds, in case you just like the Chrome OS setting however generally end up needing to see the universe by way of an alternate lens, bear in mind you could set up secondary browsers by snagging their Android variations. (If the complete desktop-level shopping expertise is what you are after, then the Linux variations are what you will want.)