So Long: Google officially removes Chrome Apps from its Web Store
One of the best features of Chrome over the last few years was the ability to install separate apps that may not have been available elsewhere. This includes Hangouts and others, but back in August of last year, Google announced that Chrome Apps would be eventually phased out and removed.
Well, the day has come where Google officially removed the Chrome Apps section from the Chrome Web Store, leaving only Extensions and Themes in its stead. The reason for the move is that Google claimed that nobody really downloaded Chrome Apps anymore, and this is the company’s way of doing some Winter cleaning.
While you may not have noticed any differences in how your current Chrome apps have been working, that is by design. Google states that current Chrome Apps will cease functioning by “early 2018”, leaving us wondering what will happen to the apps we are using.
This isn’t necessarily the end of Chrome Apps as a whole, as Google will be moving to a new option named Progressive Web Apps (PWA). This feature began rolling out to Android devices earlier this year, but Google is expecting to see a full rollout of PWA for desktops sometime in mid-2018.
As someone who uses Hangouts on a daily basis, I’m really crossing my fingers that I’ll still be able to use the Chrome App, and won’t have to resort to the web app. Let us know which of your favorite Chrome Apps are becoming obsolete, and what you plan to use instead.