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For years, users of Chrome for Android have wanted one of the things the desktop version offers that the mobile app never has: extensions. While the mobile browser is fast, easy to use, and packed with features, the lack of extension support has always been something we all wished was not a thing.
That tide may finally be turning, though, but it’s likely not in the way mobile users might hope. To be clear, you can technically use Chrome extensions on Android already. But it involves jumping through hoops and side-loading third-party Chromium-based browsers. Google’s decision to omit extension support from Chrome for Android out of the box – for various reasons – has remained a position the company seems quite committed to.
While the lack of extensions hasn’t been a deal-breaker for most phone users, it’s a different story when things transition to the desktop. Extensions are a big 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 the works
This is where things get interesting. Remember when Google announced that Chrome OS would be borrowing heavily from Android’s kernel moving forward? Well, Android Authority has spotted evidence of a new “Desktop Android” project in the Chromium Gerrit, hinting at a unified Chrome build for both Android and Chrome OS. And – you guessed it – this new version is getting extension support.
It seems Google is working toward feature parity between the Chrome browser on Chrome OS and this new “Desktop Android” version of Chrome. For now, it seems a Google engineer confirmed in a bug report that any work related to mobile platforms is explicitly out-of-scope. But that’s for now.
While extension support isn’t functional yet on any of these builds, the good news is the groundwork is being laid for it to happen in the future. How all this will play out with different or unified versions of Chrome for the desktop – be it the ChromeOS desktop or a desktop interface on stock Android moving forward – is yet to be seen. You can bet we’ll be keeping a close eye on this entire project and will report back with any new developments we find.
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