Google Chrome apps are riding off into the sunset

Chrome apps were originally launched three years ago to offer services the Web was unable to provide. At that time, Chrome apps were able to run offline, send notifications, and connect to hardware unlike websites. Progressive Web Apps work across all major web browsers and will only become more powerful as developers embrace the standard. The only consolation on the developers’ part is that Google announced months prior that Android apps will soon be compatible with Chrome OS computers, and this could encourage Chrome apps developers to also try their hand at making Android apps and perhaps focus on this in the near future.

Google has just revealed its plans of its incremental discontinue in its support for Chrome apps in each platform excluding Chrome OS.

As we continue our efforts to simplify Chrome, we believe it’s time to begin the evolution away from the Chrome apps platform.

Also, there is a point that very small percentage of users actually uses Chrome apps.

With Chrome apps available in two variants: Hosted Apps and Packaged Apps, Google’s decision to phase out support for Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux by early 2018 will give developers almost one-and-a-half years to figure out how their apps can be migrated away from the Chrome browser.

According to Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Vice President of Product Management, existing Chrome apps will continue to be available for everyone on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms and developers can go on updating them till the end of this year.

Are you sad to see the departure of Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux?

By the second half of 2017, the Chrome Web Store will no longer display Chrome apps for those operating systems, and by early 2018, users won’t be able to load Chrome apps anymore.

As for hosted Chrome apps, Google says that a lot of them had web-based versions, accessible via any an URL and any other browser, so there was no reason to keep a Chrome-specific app just for that.

Google promises of additional improvement to the Chrome apps platform. Google recommends a quartet of alternatives: web apps, extensions, extension-enhanced web pages and native apps. This means that any apps built for the popular browser that now operate on the platforms mentioned will no longer be able to run and instead be exclusives on Chrome OS by 2018. This won’t happen immediately but Google will be phasing them out slowly.