Tech giant Google recently announced that it will "fold" the Chrome OS into the Android operating system. Reports claim that the combined operating system will be revealed in 2016.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is folding Chrome OS into Android since the latter emerged as the more dominant operating system of the two. By integrating Chrome OS functionality Android, the latter can run on laptops and desktop computers as well as support for Google Play Store. The report also confirmed that Google engineers have been toiling to merge Chrome OS into Android in the past two years.
The transition will require big and major changes. Reports also claim that the Chromebook brand will be rebranded in order to reflect the changes in the new operating system.
According to The Verge, the integration of Chrome OS into the Android platform is part of Google's effort to reduce the number of independent platforms that the company needs to maintain. A preview of the new operating system will most likely be demonstrated at the 2016 Google I/O conference.
Google has yet to confirm it but there are speculations claiming that the new operating system will be released by 2017. The integration of Chrome OS into Android is not surprising at all. The plan has been on the books since 2013, at that time Google Android executive Andy Rubin was replaced by Chrome OS veteran Sundar Pichai. In 2014, Google released a new technology that allows Android apps to run on the Chrome OS platform.
Google's plan to merge Chrome OS with Android is not without its critics, especially in the security community. Security experts lauded the Chrome OS for its minimal attack surface and lock-down sandboxed browser environment. The Android operating system on the other hand is riddled with security vulnerabilities.