The official Chrome developer documentation details the full recommended way for Android devs to get started with ARC.
In short, developers need three things:
- An APK of the application they wish to test
- A PC, Mac or Chromebook running Chrome v40 or later
- The ARC Welder app from the Chrome Web Store
Installing the ARC Welder app from the Web Store also downloads ARC plugin itself (even on Windows, Mac or Linux). Since the plugin is more than 100MB in size eager mobile devs should only install it when not on a metered, cellular or slow connection.
Once up and running the ARC Welder app simplifies the entire process;
- Open ARC Welder
- Add .apk
- Set configuration values (layout, orientation, etc)
- Test
Google say developers should strive to ensure that an app works well for touch and non-touch Chromebooks, should ideally test on the Chrome OS Stable Channel and cautions that the plugin does not yet support all of Google Play Services yet.
ARC Welder allows .apk files to be quickly exported into a .zip file for easy submission to the Chrome Web Store.
