Back in March, we reported that Google was developing App Mall for ChromeOS, an application marketplace that will show you all the Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and Android applications available for the operating system as well as allow you to download them on your Galaxy Chromebook, eliminating the need for you to go to different places to find each type of app and enabling you to discover them from a single place. Well, the company has finally launched App Mall, as a preview (via Chrome Unboxed).
Currently, App Mall is available on the Canary Channel of ChromeOS 126. To access it, you will have to enable the chrome://flags/#cros-mall flag. Once you do that, the App Mall’s icon will appear in the app launcher. When you open the app marketplace, it will present you with a collection of apps. There are sections for Apps and Games, and also an option to search for an app. Once you click on an app from the collection, App Mall will show you all the details about it, including its description and screenshots.
The story continues after the video…
If an application is available only as a PWA, App Mall will say “Install from web” below the name of the app and give you the ‘Get app’ option beside the name. If an app is available only as an Android app, the platform will say “Install from Play Store” below the name of the app and give you the same ‘Get app’ option beside the name. If an app is available as a PWA as well as an Android app, App Mall will say “2 options available” below the name of the app and give you the ‘Choose option’ button beside the name.
If you select the PWA, App Mall will give you the option to the ‘Install’ option. Once you click on it, it will download the app on your Chromebook. If you select the Android app, it will take you to the listing of the app on the Google Play Store, and you can download the app from there. People who don’t have a Chromebook can also take a look at App Mall as it is available as a website. At the moment, there’s no information on when Google will make App Mall available to Stable, Beta, or Dev channels but it should happen soon.
