Many people do not know it but you can take advantage of an installable extension in the Google web browser that allows you to try out Android applications directly from your computer. In this new article today we will talk about specifically how to use Android app on PC via Chrome.
Premise
In addition to having naturally the Google Internet browser installed on your computer (if you do not have it, you can download it from the official website ), we wanted to make a small premise on the features offered by the ARC Welder extension (which stands for App Runtime for Chrome ). It is a project that was initially born to allow developers to preview their apps using simply the Big G browser.
Now, however, almost everyone can use the plugin to use some Android applications directly on the PC. Since ARC Welder is based on the old Android 4.4 KitKat, there are some limitations. For example, you can only load one software at a time, you have to choose whether to start the app in portrait mode or in the horizontal mode or whether to run the application in tablet or smartphone mode.
The extension can be used on all computers with Windows 10, MacOS and Linux Operating system. Since the add-on was specifically designed to run on Chrome OS, a warning message might appear for possible bugs.
How to use Android apps on PC via Chrome
After the important premise, we are now ready to see how best to use the ARC Welder extension in Chrome installed on your computer.
Install ARC Welder
To proceed with the installation within the Google browser, simply follow the steps listed below:
- Open Chrome and go to the extended Chrome Web Store page.
- In the next step, click on the Add button and then confirm by pressing on Add to chrome from the message that appears just above.
- Once you have made a short check, you can check its correct installation by pressing on the 3 dots on the top right and choosing Extensions that you find inside More tools. ARC Welder will be installed if the dedicated switch is active.
Where to download Android applications
The second step to follow is to download the apps to be used in Chrome through the extension. Unfortunately it is not possible to directly access the Play Store via ARC Welder, so you need to download the APK files of the desired apps using alternative websites/markets.
Launch applications in Chrome
Once you have the APK file of the desired software, now we are finally ready to discover the steps to run it within the Google Internet browsing program using the hardware extension.
Follow the steps listed below carefully:
- Open Google Chrome and press on the green robot at the top right of the screen.
- From the new window that opens automatically, first press the Add button and then the Add app button.
- Once the download of the file .crx and control, should automatically open the section Apps for Chrome.
- From here, click on ARC Welder, click on the Choose button from the window that appears and select the folder where to save the data of the app you want to start.
- At this point, through the Test your App screen, click on (+) Add your APK and double-click on the APK file to open it through ARC Welder.
- In the next step you have to set some parameters such as orientation ( Orientation ) between Landscape (horizontal) or Portrait (vertical), the form factor ( Form Factor ) between Tablet, Phone, Maximized or Fullscreen (full screen), resizing the app ( Resize ) between Reconfigure or Disabled and so on.
- Once the desired parameters have been set correctly, just press the Test button at the bottom to start the app loading.
- The chosen app will open in a new extension window.