Forget about Android merging with Chrome OS

Forget about Android merging with Chrome OS. Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president at Google, has confirmed the two operating systems will remain separate because merging them just doesn’t make sense.

Rumors surrounding a possible merger of Android and Chrome OS have been circulating for a long time now, and Google added fuel to the fire when it gave the latter access to the Google Play Store and all of the Android apps that come with it.

But the marriage won’t extend much further. During a recent interview on the All About Android podcast, Lockheimer dismissed those rumors, explaining that Android and Chrome OS “target very different users” and therefore it doesn’t make sense to merge them.

When asked to explain the difference between the two platforms in simple terms, Lockheimer said Android’s starting point was phones, and over time has evolved to run on tablets and TVs, in cars, and more. Chrome OS, on the other hand, was designed specifically for computers.

Chrome OS was also designed to be always up-to-date, with software updates that come directly from Google. In contrast, Android is usually updated by third-parties (unless you have a Nexus or Pixel device), and users must wait months for the latest releases.

“There’s no point in merging them,” Lockheimer added. “They’re both successful. We just want to make sure that both sides benefit from each other — so that’s why we brought Google Play from Android over to Chrome OS… and the update mechanism from Chrome OS to Nougat.”