It’s almost a year since Google announced that it planned to remove Chrome Apps from Windows, Mac and Linux (not from Chrome OS). Well we guess it’s finally time when Google is bidding farewell to the Chrome Apps. The Apps section has been finally shut down from the Chrome Web Store.
This means that users will no more be able to install any app from Chrome Web Store. It has also been reported that the app developers have been informed of the same. However, the installed apps will work till the first quarter of next year i.e. 2018.
The major reason behind Google’s decision of removing the apps is based on their rare usage. As per Google, “approximately 1 percent of users on Windows, Mac and Linux actively use Chrome packaged apps.”
While discussing apps, there are majorly two categories of apps namely: Packaged apps and Hosted apps.
Packaged apps are the apps that usually access hardware and run in the background. Whereas Hosted apps are usually some kind of bookmarks that can be pinned. Both these are entirely desktop features and will now exist as features only on Chrome OS.
Along with shutting down Chrome Apps, Google is also planning to bring new desktop apps that are known as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). PWAs are apps that give desktop users app like experience while using desktops. These features include push notification, access to full screen interface and many other. As of now PWA works on Chrome for Android. So, when these PWAs are there finally, they will be the only Chrome apps working on Desktops.
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Google says, it will be able to come up with PWAs desktops apps till mid-2018. There is however no news whether Chrome OS will be removing the Chrome Web Store Apps or not. But owing to the rare usage of these apps it’s a question of how these apps will survive on even Chrome OS.