ARC Welder App runs @Android Apps on Windows PC - How ARC with Dalvik VM brings @Google Android 4.4 Kitkat Apps Global

It was only a matter of time before Google Play Store began to expand outside of the Android sandbox on Smartphones and Tablets.

Google has announced their latest Developer tool, the ARC (App Runtime for Chrome) Welder, a Google Chrome  App that allows persons using Google Chrome to run Google Android Apps as noted in the article “Google ARC beta brings Android apps to Windows, Mac and Linux”, published April 2, 2015 By Brad Jones, DigitalTrends.

Thus Apps run as if on a Google Android smartphone or Tablet without crashing as explained in the article “Google’s ARC Beta runs Android apps on Chrome OS, Windows, Mac, and Linux”, published April 1, 2015 6:08pm by Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica.

What is ARC Welder anyway? Also, how did Google achieve this marvel of Programming using theARC Welder?

Google's ARC Reactor - Google goes Tony Stark with Dalvik VM for Android 4.4 Kitkat

ARC Welder uses Google Chrome as the sandbox to run your Google Android Apps.

It mainly supports Apps that run on Google Android 4.4 KitKat as it uses Dalvik VM and not faster Android Run Time (ART) which Apps made for Google Android 5.0 Lollipop uses. So it's run a bit slower than on your Android Smartphone or Tablet, but you'll not notice this, being as you'll be awed that you can even run Android Apps on your Desktop.

What that means is not only can you run Google Android apps on Google Chromebooks, but potentially on any Windows, Linux or Apple Mac OS computer running Google Chrome. This as the ARC Welder App is running a technology called Native Client (NaCL), a Google Chrome sandboxing technology that allows Chrome apps and plug-in to take full advantage of the system's CPU and GPU.

Thus a Developer merely needs to have their App tested and re-packaged in an APK (Android Application Package) format and submitted to the Chrome Web Store as explained in the Getting Started with ARC Welder webpage on the Google Chrome Developer website.

However, the exciting bit is that this is akin to running an APK using BlueStacks App Player or the Andy App Player as described in my blog article entitled “How to use the Andy App Player to play Android Apps on PC or Laptop - Android and Windows Live-OS swappable Project looks more possible”

ANYONE with a regular computer user can download ANY APK and run them using the ARC Welder as explained in the article “You can now run Android apps on a Mac or PC with Google Chrome”, published April 3, 2015 04:37 am By Tom Warren , The Verge.

This as there is really no official process for porting Android Apps to run viaARC Welder.

In fact, Developer submitting their APK files to the Chrome Web Store to become ARC Welder compatible is merely to make it easy on End users, as many End Users may be wary of installing software to run Google Android Apps, especially as it’s so easy on their smartphones and Tablets.

ARC Welder App allows Android Apps to run on Windows PC - How ARC opens up Google Android Apps to the World

The ARC Welder App is an improvement on the ARC (App Runtime for Chrome) launched back in September 2014 as announced in their Press Release entitled “First set of Android apps coming to a Chromebook near you”, published September 11, 2014, Google Chrome blog  

ARC Welder also allows Google Chomebooks, basically stripped down Macbook-esque Laptops running Google Chrome Browser as its OS (Operating System) to run Google Android Apps directly from the Google Play Store as explained in the article “Android apps like Vine, Evernote, others arrive on Chromebooks, Google says”, published September 11, 2014 By Konrad Krawczyk, DigitalTrends.

At the time, only four (4) Apps could run on Google Chromebooks using ARC Welder on a per-developer work basis as noted in the article “Chromebooks land first batch of Android apps”, published September 11, 2014 1:06 PM PDT by Seth Rosenblatt, CNET News but that range soon expanded rapidly to basically include almost any app packaged in APK you can download in the Google Play Store.

Benefits of ARC Welders – Google Developers Write once Run Anywhere with own App Stores

This developement was probably why Google Chromebooks, which account for 1% of the PC market, are so popular with the K-12 School System in the US of A, at least according to analyst IDC as noted in my blog article entitled “IDC Stats say Google Chromebooks dominates U.S. K-12 School System - 1 TB Free Google Drive as Microsoft HP Stream and 12.9-inch Apple iPad in 2015”.

Kids can now run their favourite Google Android apps not only on their smartphones and Tablets, but also their Google Chromebooks, Windows PC, Mac OS and Linux Computers. Only device running Apple iOS cannot run ARC Welder.

This now puts Apple iOS in a spot. 

Effectively, Developers, once they’re registered with Google as Developers, can write their Apps and package (or repackage as the case may be) them as APK’s and have it run anywhere, be it as an officially submitted APK to the Chrome Web Store or downloaded from your Developer website.

The marketing and advertising opportunities are endless, as you can basically be your own App Store, making revenue from advertising or any other means DIRECTLY from the end-user downloading your APK’s.

Still, many Bugs  are still left to be sorted out, such as the inability to run multiple apps and some apps not being properly emulated by ARC Welder as noted in the article “Here's how to run Android apps on Chrome with Google's new tool”, published Apr 3, 2015 by Mark Hachman, PC World.

The closest thing they have to running iOS apps on any other system other than Apple Mac, iPhones, iPads and the rest of the Apple family is Apple iCloud along with the Apple iWorks Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps as noted in my MICO Wars blog article entitled “Apple iWorks for iCloud Beta now Free for Windows, Linux OS and Google Chrome OS”.

Apple has some serious catching up to do……

Here’s the link:

App Runtime for Chrome (Beta)

Chrome Web Store

ARC Welder Developer webpage

Google Chrome Developer website