Running ChromeOS on an Android mobile is a great idea that would allow us to fully utilize our smartphone while we are at our desk. It wouldn’t be a feature for all users to use and it still seems like a distant niche, but many of us would use it in search of that convergence -promised but not fulfilled- between mobile phones and PC The good news is that Google has shown a group of partners this capacity that we have seen before, but this is the first time that the creator of both operating systems has officially shown it.

Remember Samsung DeX? The South Korean company introduced functionality in the Galaxy S8 that set it apart from the competition. Then came the DeX Pad sold with the Galaxy S9 and finally Linux on DeX, a very interesting development that made it possible to turn terminals into personal computers when connected to an external screen that offers Full computer experience in a Linux environment prepared by Samsung as part of the “Linux on Galaxy” program. Samsung has changed the program, but it still offers the original desktop experience, as we can see in this screenshot with the S23.

ChromeOS on Android Mobile (Google Official)

Android apps have long been able to run on most Chromebooks thanks to an optional feature that essentially installs Google’s mobile operating system as a subsystem of the desktop operating system. Doing it the other way around is more complicated and officially wasn’t possible at the moment. Or rather, Google didn’t consider it because third parties did, as we mentioned above about Samsung’s functionality.

In an internal presentation, Google showed a a special version of ChromeOS called “ferrochrome” that ran on the Pixel 8 via a virtual machine and was displayed on an external screen, we assume via an HDMI port.

Android Authority, which had access to the information, created its own version of the Google demo, which has its own build on the Pixel 7 Pro, which in turn was running a version of Android compiled from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). This demo actually shows a modified version of ChromeOS running and using the Pixel 7 Pro’s display.

What is all this for? Very little for the average Android user who wants his ‘guasap’ and little else. But it is very interesting for those of us who are looking for something more, we have to work at a desk and we are looking for more use for our mobile phone worth 600-900 or more than 1000 euros than its mobile communication capabilities.

It would simply allow us to use our Android phone as a Chromebox when connected to an external screen, with the desktop version Chrome web browser and full support for browser extensions and web applications. It is not known if Google plans to launch this feature in the future. In any case, very interesting.