In order to facilitate the development of the Android apps, Google has releases ARC Welder – an Android emulator extension that runs within Google’s Chrome web browser. Using the ARC Welder anyone can run the APK files (Android app files) inside the Chrome browser. Although this tool is primarily directed towards the developers, just about anyone can use it to launch the Android apps on a Windows, Linux or Mac computers. This tool can run almost all types of apps, but some apps that need specific hardware access may fail to run. Similarly, some of the apps may need your PC to have high quality graphics card before you can run them comfortably.
What this ARC Welder tool does is that it converts the supplied Android apps into Chrome apps before launching them in the Chrome web browser. This way it can launch the apps in your PC just as if you are running any other Chrome based app.
For ARC Welder to work you need at least version 40 of the Chrome web browser. After updating your Chrome browser to the latest version, you can navigate to the ARC Welder web page at http://goo.gl/gAn0Xh to install it in the Chrome browser. This will need one time large download so be patient while it downloads and installs.
In the ARC Welder interface you can add an APK file belonging to the Android apps. After this you can select orientation, form factor, clipboard etc., for the Android device. Finally, you can click on the Launch App button to proceed and launch the app.
I tried launching many different apps – some of the apps run beautifully while others throw up some error and fail ti run. Some of the larger apps do not run as flawlessly as they would on a real Android device.
Conclusion: Though geared towards developers, you can use the ARC Welder tool from Google to launch Android apps on your Windows, Linux, Chrome OS or Mac computers. All you need is the latest Chrome web browser, ARC Welder and the APK file for the app.