Chromebooks, PWAs and the Play Store: why we need a way to force Android app downloads

Back in 2020, Google began introducing the ability for app developers to push their PWA to Chromebooks from the Play Store instead of the Android app. And I 100% love this decision. In many cases, PWAs (progressive web apps) are a far better experience on the desktop and work much smoother with the overall way that you expect to do things on a Chromebook.

These days, there are quite a few examples of this and I leverage most of them. From your Chromebook, go to install Capcut, TikTok, the Pixel Buds app or a host of others and though there’s no indication that it is happening, you’ll be seamlessly adding a PWA to your app selection without even knowing it. Again, there’s a good reason for this: these apps work better on Chromebooks as their web components versus the full-blown Android app.

And at the end of the day, most users don’t really care what their app is under the hood or what version of the app they get: they just want it to work properly. And with Google delivering the PWA for apps where it makes sense, this is exactly what happens for users without them having to do anything to make it so. For apps like Spotify, YouTube Music, and more, I think this is 100% the route developers should go.

Sometimes I still want the Android version

But there are times when having the Android version of an app would still be preferable. Take TikTok as an example. The web app is quite good for most things, but if you want to do some real creation, you’d want the Android app and all of its effects and video tricks. And though it’s fine to watch TikTok videos via the PWA, having a tighter interface like the Android app gives me on my Chromebook would be preferable in a lot of situations.

And that’s precisely why I’d love to see Google add a way for those who understand or care about what is going on with PWAs in the Play Store to opt for the Android version of apps when they choose to. It could be a bit hidden and only accessible for those “in the know,” but I’d love to be able to force the Android app version when I choose if there’s something in that version that is actually better for what I’m trying to accomplish on my Chromebook.

Those times will probably be few, sure, but my Chromebook has the ability to handle most Android apps with ease, and when the circumstances call for it, being able to use the app version that best suits my needs would be very handy. Will Google ever do this? Maybe, but there’s no telling when or if it will actually happen. I sure hope it does one day, though. It could be a very handy tool for power users to take advantage of as Chromebooks get better and better at handling Android apps in general.