| Google Chrome Apps | |
| Url: | (works only on Chromebooks) |
| Commercial: | Yes |
| Language: | English |
| Owner: | |
| Author: | Google and other app developers |
| Current Status: | Chrome Apps in the Chrome Web Store are active for ChromeOS only (until January 2025); support for other operating systems discontinued in July 2022. |
Google Chrome Apps, or commonly just Chrome Apps, were a certain type of non-standardized web application that ran on the Google Chrome web browser. Chrome apps could be obtained from the Chrome Web Store along with various free and paid apps, extensions, and themes. The apps came in two varieties: hosted, or server-side, and packaged, or client-side; each format targeting different use cases.[1] Support for Chrome Apps in the Chrome Web Store was removed from Chrome in June 2022, except on ChromeOS where support has been extended until at least January 2025.[2] For Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS users, you could add a shortcut of a website as a Chrome app.[3]
On August 19, 2016, Google announced that it would begin phasing out Chrome Apps for Windows, MacOS and Linux (both packaged and hosted) by the end of 2016, finishing the process in early 2018. The company said that such apps would continue to be supported and maintained on ChromeOS "for the foreseeable future".[4] [5] The plan later changed, with Chrome Apps set to last until at least January 2025 for ChromeOS.
On January 15, 2020, Google announced that Chrome would begin phasing out support for Chrome Apps completely starting in March 2020, with support for consumers until June 2021.[6] On October 14, 2021, Google announced that support from Chrome Apps for Enterprise and Education customers using ChromeOS would be extended until at least January 2025.[7]
Chrome apps can be hosted or packaged. Hosted apps have their background web pages on a remote server and the app acts like a bookmark or shortcut;[8] packaged apps have offline functionality making use of local storage.
Packaged apps were launched on September 5, 2013.[9] They have features very similar to a native desktop app, namely offline capable (by default), can interact with hardware devices, and can access local storage.[10] [11] Packaged apps are not confined to the regular Chrome interface and can display without a classic window menu and operating system user interface elements.
Hosted apps are the original type of Chrome apps. They contain a single manifest file that contains the URL and additional information about the app. Hosted apps typically require an internet connection and are subject to regular web page security restrictions.[12]