Possible to install Android on Acer C720P Chromebook?

[AC Question]

Hello -

I recently bought an Acer touchscreen laptop and am finding that I don't use it as often as I expected because I prefer the experience of certain Android apps from my smartphone (e.g., Pocketcasts, Press, etc). Given that Android runs on such a variety of devices, that made me wonder whether it's possible to convert this Chromebook to an Android laptop -- especially since it's a touchscreen laptop.

Was wondering if anyone knows whether that's possible; and if so, can someone point me to a site that has a good walkthrough for how to do it?

Thanks!

 

[wizzrah]

Chromebooks will soon run android apps. It was announced around 5 days ago. You might want to wait for that. I've seen Android on the Chromebook pixel but not others.


One way you can try is to install Linux and run Virtualbox by Oracle

There is a program call Crouton that will allow you to install Ubuntu.

From there, you can install Virtualbox

and run a Virtual machine that runs Android.

Hope this helps.

Here is Virtualbox: https://www.virtualbox.org/

Here is a guide on Crouton: http://www.howtogeek.com/162120/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-your-chromebook-with-crouton/

 

[cloudcover]

Thanks, that's a very helpful answer. I had read about coming support for Android apps in Chrome but it seems those things often take a while to develop (or not, as the case might be). I'll think about the virtualbox approach -- I was hoping there might be something more direct so there wouldn't be the performance penalty of using a virtual machine, but it might not be too bad, I suppose.

 

[wizzrah]

Thanks, that's a very helpful answer. I had read about coming support for Android apps in Chrome but it seems those things often take a while to develop (or not, as the case might be). I'll think about the virtualbox approach -- I was hoping there might be something more direct so there wouldn't be the performance penalty of using a virtual machine, but it might not be too bad, I suppose.

You can allocate as much power as you can to that Virtual machine. The only limit is the specs of your device.

 

[cloudcover]

Ah, thanks, I hadn't realized that.

One final question: any idea whether the touchscreen would be functional if I'm running Android inside the Virtualbox? I thought I saw elsewhere that the touch functionality on Windows laptops sometimes works (or not) depending on driver issues. Wasn't sure if things are any better/worse in a situation like mine where the installed ChromeOS already seems to support the touchscreen.

 

[wizzrah]

Ah, thanks, I hadn't realized that.

One final question: any idea whether the touchscreen would be functional if I'm running Android inside the Virtualbox? I thought I saw elsewhere that the touch functionality on Windows laptops sometimes works (or not) depending on driver issues. Wasn't sure if things are any better/worse in a situation like mine where the installed ChromeOS already seems to support the touchscreen.

That might be the case. You'll probably have to install some drivers.