Android on Chrome OS: kind of embarrassing

These days I often reach for my Pixelbook over my Macbook Pro, often because it’s easy for me to log into my work account as well as my personal one. Plus the keyboard still way better than the awful butterfly one; here’s hoping Apple quickly introduces their improved keyboard across their laptop line (although I haven’t personally tried it, so I can’t yet verify how much it’s actually improved).

But I gotta say, Android on Chrome OS is still kind of a mess. Why can I still not put apps on the home screen? Why is there still no clear differentiation between Android apps and web pages? And why on earth do downloads from the Play Store occasionally slow to a crawl?

The latter is something I’ve observed twice now. For no clear reason, downloads (both new installs and updates) from the Play Store will suddenly slow to a crawl. We’re talking 20 minutes to download and install a 10 mb update slow. The slowness will last for a couple of weeks, and then suddenly it’ll clear up, again for no clear reason.

I suspect it’s potentially an issue with Google Play Services, since at the same time content will stop downloading in the Play Movies & TV app (or it could be an issue with the Download Manager, assuming PM&T uses it to refresh the app content, but is possible but not certain). None of the proposed workarounds suggested online work: forcing stopping apps or services, clearing caches, clearing data. It’s frankly embarrassing that Google even has to propose those solutions; an app should never force users to go in and manually clear out the app’s data. Don’t get me started on the proposed “uninstall and reinstall Android” solution.

I really hope that the relevant teams at Google identify and fix the issue(s). If the company wants to run with Android on Chrome OS as their preferred tablet and laptop solution, they need to make the ability to download and update apps rock solid. A solution that doesn’t reliably let you use apps isn’t a solution.