Users of Chrome for Android have been asking for one feature in the desktop version but not in the mobile app for years. extension. Mobile browsers are fast, easy to use, and feature-packed, but the lack of extension support is something we’ve all always wished for.
But while that trend may finally be changing, it’s likely not in the direction mobile users expect. To be clear, you can technically I’m already using Chrome extensions on Android. However, this requires going through the hoops and sideloading a third-party Chromium-based browser. For a variety of reasons, Google’s decision to omit extension support from Chrome for Android from the start remains a position the company seems very committed to.
For most mobile phone users, the lack of extensions isn’t a problem, but moving to the desktop is a different story. Extensions are a huge part of the desktop browsing experience, and Google knows it. This is especially true for Chrome OS, where Chrome is the primary way users interact with the web.
Desktop Android Chrome is in development
Here’s where things get interesting. Remember when Google announced that Chrome OS would borrow heavily from the Android kernel going forward? Android Authority found evidence of a new “desktop Android” project in Chromium Gerrit, and Android and Chrome OS Both suggest an integrated Chrome build. And as you might have guessed, this new version has extension support.
Google appears to be working toward feature parity between its Chrome browser on Chrome OS and this new “desktop Android” version of Chrome. So far, Google engineers seem to have confirmed in bug reports that work related to mobile platforms is explicitly excluded. But that’s it for now.
Although extension support is not yet functional in these builds, the good news is that the foundation is being laid for future extension support. It remains to be seen how all this will play out across different or unified versions of Chrome for desktop, whether it’s ChromeOS desktop or the upcoming standard Android desktop interface. We are closely monitoring this entire project and will report any new developments we discover.
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