How To Install Android Apps On Chromebook

Deploy Android apps to managed users on Chromebooks

For managed users on Chromebooks and other Chrome OS devices.

As an administrator, you can decide which Android apps your users can install and use on their Chrome devices. To get started, turn on managed Google Play and Android apps for users in your organization.

Before you begin

If you allowlist Android apps, users can't switch to secondary accounts in Google Play.
If you don't have a subscription to Chrome Enterprise Upgrade, you can manage Android apps for users only. In the steps below, skip the step to click the Users & browsers tab at the top of the page.
To configure Chrome devices to run as kiosks or managed guest sessions, first you need to enroll devices. For details, see Enroll Chrome devices.

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Enable Android apps and managed Google Play

Step 1: Ensure that managed Google Play is enabled

From the Admin console Home page, go to Apps.
Click Additional Google services.
Confirm that the Service Status for Managed Google Play is set to On for your intended users.

Step 2: Enable Android apps

Step 3: (Optional) Use additional controls

From the Admin console Home page, go to Devices Chrome.
Click Settings Users & browsers.
To apply the setting to all users and enrolled browsers, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
Scroll to Android applications.
(Optional) To stop users from adding a second Google Account, for Account management check the Google account box.
(Optional) To synchronize Google Chrome OS CA certificates available to Android apps, for Certificate synchronization select Enable usage of Chrome OS CA certificates in Android apps.
Click Save.

Settings typically take effect in minutes. But they might take up to an hour to apply for everyone.

Install Android apps on Chrome devices

Step 1: Select apps

Step 2: Decide how apps are installed

As an admin you have 2 ways to install apps for your users on Chrome devices. You can automatically install apps (Force install), or you can allow the user to manually install apps from the Play Store (Allow install). You can also pin force-installed apps to the user's taskbar and you can block users from installing apps.

Configure app installation settings

From the Admin console Home page, go to Devices Chrome.
Click Apps & extensions Users & browsers.
To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
Click the app that you want to configure.
Under Installation policy, choose Allow install, Force install,Force install + pin, or Block.
Click Save.

Note: While a force-installed app is downloading, the user sees a STOP button. If they press it, the download is stopped. Another attempt at installation is made at the next sign in and install attempts continue until the app is successfully installed or the app is no longer part of the list of apps that are force-installed.

Allow the installation of any app

This feature is not available for education domains.

If you give your users full access to the managed Google Play store, they can search for and install any app on their Chrome devices, even apps you haven't selected.

From the Admin console Home page, go to Devices Chrome.
Click Apps & extensions Users & browsers.
To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
For Allow users to install other apps & extensions, choose an option:
- Allow all other apps and extensions—Users can install all apps and extensions from the Google Play store and Chrome Web Store except the ones that you block.
- Allow other apps from the Google Play Store only—Users can install all apps from the Google Play Store except the ones that you block.
Click Save.

(Optional) Add private apps

You can use the managed Google Play store to host private Android apps for your organization. You can control who can download an app, and you can benefit from security checks, such as user authentication and malware detection.

To deploy private Android apps to Chrome devices, first publish the apps to the managed Google Play store. For details, see Manage Google Play private apps.

Sign in as an admin to managed Google Play.
On the left, click Admin Settings and note your Organization ID.
Go to the Google Play Console.
Select your private app.
Click Store Presence Pricing & distribution.
Check the Privately target this app to a list of organizations box.
Click Choose Organizations and add your Organization ID (noted in step 2).
Click Submit Update.

It might take up to 24 hours to see the app in the My managed apps list. The managed Google Play help center contains detailed information on how to manage apps and app licenses for use in your organization.

Step 3: (Optional) Apply managed configurations to an Android app

For some apps and extensions, you can install custom policies. For example, a digital signage kiosk app might have a schedule of events that's contained in a JavaScript® Object Notation (JSON) file.

From the Admin console Home page, go to Devices Chrome.
Click Apps & extensions Users & Browsers or Kiosks.
To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
Find and click the app that you want to configure policies for.
On the right, under Managed configuration, enter the JSON data in the text field.
Click Save.

Sample policy configuration files

The following sample configuration shows how to define a very restrictive block list that stops the app from accessing any URL. It also includes an allow list of specific URLs that the app can access:

{ "com.android.browser:URLBlocklist": "[\"*\"]" "com.android.browser:URLAllowlist": "[\"www.solamora.com\", \"www.altostrat.com\"]" }

The following sample configuration shows how to specify all supported setting types (boolean, string, array, and object array):

{ "can_say_hello": true, "message": "Hello, it's me", "approvals": [ "read", "write" ], "items": [{ "key": "key1", "value": "1"}, { "key": "key2", "value": "2"}] }

Verify Android apps are available on users' devices

Step 1: Check Chrome OS version

Before your users can get Android apps on their Chrome devices, they might need to update their Chromebook software. Make sure that the Chromebook is updated to at least Chrome OS version 53 for Chrome Enterprise Upgrade customers or version 56 for Chrome Education Upgrade customers. See Update your Chromebook's operating system.

Step 2: Open Google Play

After you enable Android apps for users in your organization, users see Play Store in the shelf at the bottom or side of the screen on their Chrome device.

On a Chromebook, click Play Store to open Google Play.
Click Agree to accept the Terms of Service.

Remove Android apps from Chrome devices

Remove apps

You can remove Android apps that you no longer want on user devices. The next time users sign in to their Chrome device, the app and its associated user data are removed. And, although users can still see the app in the library in Google Play, they can't install it.

Before you begin

If you give any users access to all apps in Google Play, you can't modify the Allow installation setting (remove any Android apps) for those users.

Remove an app and its associated user data

From the Admin console Home page, go to Devices Chrome.
Click Apps & extensions Users & browsers.
To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
Find and click the app that you want to remove.
Under Installation policy, choose Block.
Click Save.

Remove an app from the Admin Console

Users that already have the app installed will still be able to use it.

From the Admin console Home page, go to Devices Chrome.
Click Apps & extensions Users & browsers.
On the left, select the top-level organizational unit.
Find and click the app that you want to remove.
In the panel on the right, click Remove.
Click Save.

(Optional) Run an Android app as a kiosk on a Chrome device

For information about how to push Android apps to a Chrome device in locked-down kiosk mode, see Use Android apps on Chrome devices running as a kiosk.

FAQs

Which Chrome devices support Android apps?

For Chrome Enterprise Upgrade, Android apps are supported on Chrome OS version 53 and later.
For Chrome Education Upgrade, Android apps are supported on Chrome OS version 56 and later.

Note: As an administrator, you need to enable Android apps for your domain before your users can install Android apps on their devices.

Can users install any Android app they want?

As an administrator, you can:

Create and manage a list of Google Play apps to use in your organization. Learn more
Choose how you want to install apps, depending on which organizational unit users belong to. Learn more

Chrome Enterprise admins can also let users search for and install any Android app from the Google Play store.