Google Chrome Apps are over three years old, offering an array of exciting purpose built apps like Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop app, but today Google has announced they will be phasing out support for Chrome Apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux over the next two years.
Chrome OS users will still be able to see, install and use Chrome Apps, with Chrome OS users still able to see new Chrome apps published, though from later this year, Mac, Windows and Linux users will not. Windows, Mac and Linux users will no longer be able to see Chrome Apps in the Chrome Web Store, finally, in 2018, they won’t even be able to run Chrome Apps. It’s important to note that Chrome extensions will be unaffected by the change, its just packaged and hosted Chrome apps.
The announcement list new APIs such as service worker and web push which power Progressive Web Apps rather than Chrome Apps, which are used by only 1% of Windows, Mac and Linux users. Google believes that this is cause to sunset support for the Chrome apps platform.
What this means for a number of Chrome Apps including Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop app which I and the other Ausdroid team use extensively, is unclear. It’s possible that Google has a plan for these apps, but we’ll have to wait and see.
What Chrome Apps are you currently using on Mac, Windows or Linux that will be affected by this change?
