Chrome OS Tipped to Get Android 7.1.1 Nougat Update Support Soon

Google's PC operating system, Chrome OS, has been in the spotlight all of this year, and Samsung's recently revealed Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro have been much talked about ever since their CES unveils. Now, taking it a step further, evidence that the folks behind Chrome OS are actively working to bring support for Android 7.1.1 Nougat features has cropped up, getting everyone understandably excited.

Chrome Unboxed has got hold of some screenshots from a reader showing the ChomeOS Canary channel updated to Android 7.1.1. The Canary channel is not the stable channel, and therefore really buggy, but is enough testimony that Android 7.1.1 Nougat in coming sometime soon. Also shared by the reader, is another screenshot from his Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook showing that window resizing will also arrive with the update. Window resizing of apps is an exciting prospect, as it will make Android apps more user-friendly on Chrome OS machines. Support for Android 7.1.1 Nougat also means that Android apps running on Chrome OS will get support for the latest Nougat features. Currently, Android apps running on Chrome OS use the Android 6.0 Marshmallow framework.

Unfortunately, this version is not seen on all Chromebooks running on Canary channel. In any case, the Canary channel is running on version 57 same as the Developer channel, which builds hope that Android 7.1.1 Nougat could arrive with the stable version on Chrome OS 56. Chrome Unboxed claims that the next stable version is set to arrive sometime in late January.

Chrome OS currently runs on version 55 with Android 6.0 Marshmallow for Play Store apps. The newly announced Samsung Chromebooks have come with Google Play integration out of the box. Apart from this, other Chromebooks that have got Android apps available on the stable channel include Samsung Chromebook 3, Acer R13, Asus Flip, Google Chromebook Pixel 2, and Lenovo Thinkpad 13 to name a few.