Chromebooks may soon lose a feature that allows you to use Windows apps

Back in 2020, Google announced Chromebooks would be able to run Android and Windows apps side by side through a partnership with Parallels. Fast forward to today, it appears the tech giant may be ready to call it quits on the Parallels Desktop experiment.

If you’re not familiar with Parallels Desktop, it’s tech that virtualizes machines within an existing operating system. This system is what macOS users rely on to use Windows apps on Apple’s platform.

While it’s a viable way to get legacy apps running on Chrome OS, its presence on Chromebooks also presents a few paradoxes. One is that you need to have a higher-powered Chromebook to use the virtual desktop, which kind of defeats the whole affordability aspect of a Chromebook. Another conflict surfaced after Google merged with Cameyo and brought its virtual app delivery service to Chrome OS, giving Chromebook users a new way to use Windows apps.

According to Chrome Unboxed, sources say there haven’t been any meaningful updates to Parallels-on-Chromebook since nearly a year and a half ago. Apparently, the firm hasn’t put much of its focus on the project at all. Given the lack of attention, plus other issues, it may be unsurprising to learn that these same sources also claim that Parallels-on-Chromebook will end in the near future.

Reportedly, Google has come to the conclusion to shut things down. But it seems Chromebook users will at least be alerted with an official announcement before the end of 2024.

If this is true, Cameyo may be the only option for running legacy apps on Chromebooks going forward. We’ll just have to wait to see if Google sends out that official announcement.