Android’s Clock App Coming To Chrome OS

Android’s Clock app is coming to Chrome OS as “headless” app. This means you will not see this app in the launcher, but when you visit the Play Store, it will show already installed. Here is the code change that talks about this:

Make Android Clock App headless

It will be one of the default ARC apps, but we don’t want it to show
up in the launcher.

BUG=744719
TEST=Install a new image build with the new PAI apk, and make sure
Clock don’t show up in the launcher, yet it is installed from the
play store.

We have seen Android apps like Wallpaper coming to Chrome OS, as we progress further towards the marriage/merger of Chrome OS with Android. Now that Chrome OS runs Android apps, complete with the Google Play Store, we should see more of this trend with most of the Google apps.

This commit talks about bringing the Android Clock app as a “headless app” to Chrome OS. I am not sure why this has to be a headless app, and not a regular app. We will have to wait for more details on that.

For now, for those who are unfamiliar with headless apps, here is the Wikipedia definition of it:

Headless software (e.g. “headless java”[1] or “headless Linux”,[2]) is software capable of working on a device without a graphical user interface. Such software receives inputs and provides output through other interfaces like network or serial port and is common on servers and embedded devices.

Interesting change indeed! Do you have any thoughts on why Google is making this a headless app on Chrome OS?