Run Android applications on PC with Chrome

There is already an easy way to run Android applications on your PC: using the Google Chrome browser. Everything consists of installing a «complement» for this browser (which is the one that does all the work), choose the Android application you want to run (.APK file) and that’s it.

This plugin (or rather, application) for the Google Chrome browser is called ARC Welder and can be downloaded and installed from the Chrome Web Store (ARC Welder en Chrome Web Store). Obviously, first it is necessary to have the Google Chrome browser installed on the Windows PC, Linux or Mac (google.es/chrome).

Once the ARC Welder application is installed (the download may take several minutes because it weighs more than 50MB) it is opened and, on the screen Welcome, you choose a directory on your PC’s hard drive to store the “data” from Android apps. Finally, on the next screen, click on Add your APK, choose the .APK file from your PC’s hard drive and click on Launch App.

As can be seen in the image, before running the application you can adjust the orientation of the screen (horizontal or vertical), choose the type of screen (tablet or phone) and switch to full screen mode (Maximized).

FAQ (Questions and answers)

Where can I download .APK files
The .APK file of an Android application cannot be obtained directly from Google Play, but there are online pages, such as downloader-apk.com, which allow you to obtain the APK of any application that is in that store. Our article Downloading applications from Google Play to your PC offers other alternatives.

How do I open ARC Welder
Once installed, go to the Google Chrome address bar, type chrome://apps and press Enter.

How to load a new application
In ARC Welder, click the button Go Back and then on Add your APK. Choose the APK and click Launch App. The notice will appear Confirm deletion. Click on Get rid of to delete the previously loaded Android application from Google Chrome; Click on Cancel to leave it loaded in Google Chrome.

Two apps can be used simultaneously
Yes. Without closing the first application window, load a second application as indicated in the previous paragraph (using the option Cancel when the notice comes out Confirm deletion). This may not work in all cases.

How to open already loaded applications
In the address bar of Google Chrome, type chrome://apps and press Enter. Click on the Android application that you want to open. Another way is to type in the address bar chrome://extensions and click on the link Start, in the application you want to open. Not all applications can be opened in this way: when it is not possible, the application must be reloaded with ARC Welder.

How to create shortcuts to applications
In the address bar of Google Chrome, type chrome://apps. Right click on the Android application and then choose Create shortcuts. You can create shortcuts on the desktop and start menu.

Where the application data is saved
For now, there seems to be no way to recover the data saved by the applications.

I can use Instagram on PC
Yes. With ARC Welder, photography applications such as Instagram or Retrica work perfectly. The photos are taken without problems with the webcam of the PC and can be published. In the case of Retrica, for example, photos can even be saved to the PC using the option Share.

ARC Welder is an official Google application for the Chrome browser. It’s better than plugin ARCHON Custom Runtime (detailed in the article Run APK in Google Chrome), because it is easier to use and is compatible with more Android applications.