Best Chrome apps
Check Out the Best of Chrome
Google may shuttered Chrome apps on desktop versions of its browser, but Chrome apps remain an essential part of the separate Chromebook and Chrome OS ecosystem, with an ever-expanding library of apps that add tons of functionality to the browser-based OS. Users of some of the latest Chromebooks can even get Android apps from the Google Play Store and install them to their Chrome OS device. From cloud programming tools to image editors, from note-taking software to music tools, here are the 30 best Chrome apps right now.
CrossOver on Chrome OS
Code Weavers' CrossOver is a popular tool for running Windows software on a Mac, and now, there's also a Chrome OS app in public beta that allows you to run Windows software and games on Intel-based Chromebooks without needing to dual-boot or run a virtual machine. Users can download the CrossOver app from the Google Play Store, and CrossOver boasts compatibility with a wide array of apps, from Quicken and Microsoft Office to Steam. (Download CrossOver on Chrome OS)
VLC for ChromeOS
Open-source media player VLC is a one-stop shop for all of your media playing needs, opening just about any file format you throw at it, from the ubiquitous MP3 and AVI to more esoteric types such as MKV, FLAC, as well as DVD ISOs and network streams. Handy, easy to use, and packed with tons of audio and video settings, subtitle support and media library management features, VLC is a fantastic addition to your Chromebook's app library. (Download VLC for ChromeOS)
Polarr
Polarr brings a powerful, full-featured offline photo editing app straight to your Chromebook, with no web connection necessary. Preset filters let you easily apply quick effects, but Polarr also offers more robust editing tools for tweaking exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows and color temperature, as well as the ability to tweak the entire photo or through more limited radial, gradient and brush-based edits. The app keeps track of your edit history, allowing you to roll back changes and quickly compare with the original image. A great extra is the fact that Polarr also supports RAW file formats. (Download Polarr)
Sketchpad
Sketchpad is less about high-powered photo editing and more about quickly being able to sketch, color, add text, or apply simple manipulations to an image. Users can start with a fresh background or drag and drop images into Sketchpad. Fom there, you quickly add layers, rotate, scale, apply filters, and more. It's a souped-up version of Paint rather than a slimmed-down Photoshop, but it's a solid tool to work with for quick edits and mockups. (Download Sketchpad)
Nimbus Screenshot
Of course, you don't even need a full-featured photo editor if you're just looking to take and annotate screenshots. Nimbus Screenshot is a Chrome browser extension that works offline and online to capture your browser window or the whole webpage with a single key press. In addition to screenshots, you can record screencasts, edit and annotate screenshots, and save them online or locally on your device. (Download Nimbus Screenshot)
Clipchamp
Clipchamp is a compact video utility app that lives within Chrome and ChromeOS, allowing you to record webcam videos, convert and compress video files, and upload or share them to a variety of sources. Handy optimization features let you convert and compress for a variety of purposes, whether it's for sharing to a site like YouTube or Vimeo, optimizing a video for mobile devices, creating a GIF, or saving the file to your device. Clipchamp is free for personal use, with watermarks and a limit of 5-minute webcam recordings. Paid subscriptions remove the watermarks and increase the webcam recording limit to 30 minute videos. (Download Clipchamp)
Office Online
While Chrome OS handles office documents just fine through Google Docs, formatting artifacts can still pop up when converting documents to and from Google's native document formats. If you really need maximum compatibility, then Microsoft's free Office Online app lets you create, open and edit MS Office documents, with support for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, and Sway. Users can fire up locally stored files, or work collaboratively through the cloud with OneDrive support, while working with the familiar Office interface and without having to worry about compatibility issues with other MS Office users. The great weakness though is that Office Online requires a net connection. (Download Office Online)
Calmly Writer
For something that takes a more minimalist approach, try Calmly Writer, a distraction-free text editor that can operate in full screen or paragraph focus modes; it also comes with an OpenDyslexic mode to aid users with dyslexia and similar cognitive conditions. Cloud saves allow you to take your work anywhere, while offline support means that you can continue working on your Chromebook even without an internet connection. You can then export your work (or import new content) as HTML, plain text, markdown, Word document, or PDF. (Download Calmly Writer)
ShiftEdit
ShiftEdit is a neat online/offline IDE with web development in mind, working with HTML, PHP, Ruby, CSS, and JavaScript to allow you to easily connect to your site and save and edit on the fly. ShiftEdit offers collaboration features, a built-in Git client, terminal, and a ton of helpful features like autocomplete and syntax checking, revision history and controls and more. Subscriptions start at $6 per month for a Basic account that supports up to 50 projects, with higher tiers offering more features. (Download ShiftEdit)
Paperpile ($2.99 per month)
As knowledge bases and academic work begins to turn more and more to online resources, keeping track of your references and sources becomes more and more critical in the ephemeral online environment. Paperpile is an online reference management service that lets users generate properly formatted citations for sources, as well as organize and keep track of weblinks, papers, PDFs, and other sources, which can be tagged, starred or annotated. The service comes with a 30-day free trial, and costs $2.99 per month. (Download Paperpile)
Mighty Text
MightyText brings your Android smartphone and computer closer together, allowing you to sync your SMS messages and notifications from your phone to your desktop. You can send and receive SMS and MMS messages from you desktop, sync photos and videos and receive app notifications from your smartphone. You'll need to install the MightyText app on your phone, as well as on Chrome. (Download Mighty Text)
Signal Private Messenger
Open Whisper System's Signal Private Messenger has long been a favorite of privacy advocates looking for a secure and encrypted instant messenger style chat app, and now, Signal is available for users on Chrome. The Signal Private Messenger add-on allows you to connect using your existing phone number and address book, with no separate logins, usernames, or PINs. It also allows you to send group, text, and picture messages with the assurance of free, end-to-end encryption. (Download Signal Private Messenger)
Kami
For a feature-packed Chrome OS document reader and PDF annotation tool, check out Kami, a browser-based word processor and collaboration tool that's designed to be at home both in the classroom and the workplace. Kami handles document files, spreadsheets and PDFs, while including annotation tools, e-signatures and more whether you're working offline or through Google Drive and Google Classroom. It's got a good spread of features, though its $10-per-month subscription model is sure to irk those not used to premium subscriptions for office software. (Download Kami)
Slack
Slack takes conventional instant messaging a step further to make a more useful group messaging and coordination tool. Slack covers your IM basics with real-time messaging synced across devices. It also supports file sharing, direct and group messaging tools. In addition, the app features a system of chat channels, allowing you to quickly set up subgroups for task or topic-oriented discussions. Slack archives your communications, allowing you to search through old messages, channels and shared files, and includes integration with a variety of services such as cloud storage, Asana, Zendesk and more. Premium plans provide more features, such as expanded file storage and better app integration. (Download Slack)
Cloud9
Cloud9 is a powerful cloud programming platform, with an online Ubuntu workspace and support for 40 different programming languages and collaborative editing. Users have access to a configurable environment and a tabbed, color-coded editing space that makes it easy to read and edit work. Free users get unlimited public workspaces and a single private workspace, while premium plans provide more features like unlimited private workspaces, 'hot' workspaces that are kept on for easy loading, team collaboration, and SSH workspaces. (Download Cloud9)
ZenHub for GitHub
ZenHub takes the default GitHub experience and adds powerful project and team management tools straight to the website's interface. Multi-repository task boards help keep you all on the same page, while a reporting suite uses and organizes data from GitHub milestones, listed issues and pull requests. Task management tools exist for macro and micro purposes, with a system of Epics to group related issues and tasks together and break them apart into manageable issues and tasks. In addition, integration with Slack, HipChat and other productivity tools means it plays well with many other communication and enterprise productivity tools. (Download ZenHub for GitHub)
Draw.io Desktop
Draw.io Desktop brings users an excellent free standalone diagramming app straight into their Chromebook. Armed with a variety of drawing tools and shapes, Draw.io easily handles traditional flowcharts and diagrams, with tools and features that support more advanced diagrams such as electrical wiring diagrams, UI mockups for Android and iOS, network layouts and more. (Download Draw.io Desktop)
StayFocusd
StayFocusd is a godsend for users who fritter away their time instead of working. Users can set themselves a time allowance for particular sites and time-wasters, such as social networks, feed readers or TVTropes, and once you've hit that limit, StayFocusd blocks access. The extension is highly configurable, allowing you to block access to a particular list, restrict access to everything except an approved list or even block access to all websites. (Download StayFocusd)
JSTorrent
JSTorrent is a lean and mean open source BitTorrent downloader client that lives just fine on Chrome OS, allowing users to easily download and upload torrents on their Chromebook. The app is a full-featured torrent client, handling magnet links, multi-gigabyte files, per-torrent settings, and other advanced features with equal aplomb. (Download JSTorrent)
Overdrive
The Overdrive media console is a powerful ebook reader and audiobook app that stands out for its ties to more than 30,000 different libraries worldwide, allowing users to digitally borrow and return ebooks and audiobooks from participating branches. Users can create holds, wishlists, and instantly return books hassle-free. In addition, you can sync your library, bookmarks and last-read position across multiple devices, allowing you to easily switch between reading on a phone, tablet, or Chromebook. (Download Overdrive)
Evernote
One of the world's premier cloud note-taking apps, Evernote now comes to Chrome OS as part of the first wave of Android apps making their way to Chromebooks and browsers. More than just a bookmarklet, the Evernote app provides you with the full-on note-taking and organizing experience. In addition to a clean and uncluttered notepad, the app allows you to organize your notes and other files into searchable, cloud-based notebooks that can be synced across devices, with even more features available to premium subscribers. (Download Evernote)
Lastpass
In our highly connected online world, we might have to juggle the usernames and passwords of dozens of different accounts for a wild variety of apps and services. That's where password managers like LastPass step in, serving as your personal password locker, helping you generate strong passwords and then automatically saving them into an encrypted password locker that you can access anywhere with your master password. Simple, secure and with remarkably convenient features such as form autofilling, LastPass is a great addition to your Chromebook. (Download LastPass)
Kindle Cloud Reader
Amazon's Kindle ebook reading software is available on a variety of platforms, including Google Chrome, allowing you to read your Amazon ebooks from your browser or Chromebook. Kindle Cloud Reader features a highly configurable reading view with options for font size, reading background, and more. Kindle really takes advantages of Amazon's Whispersync system, with the app automatically syncing your last book and page read, notes and other resources. The app even allows you to download books for offline reading. (Download Kindle Cloud Reader)
Netflix
With more and more Chromebooks capable of installing and running Android apps from the Google Play Store, Chromebook owners are getting expanded entertainment options, including streaming media giant Netflix. Users can stream a variety of TV series, movies, films, documentaries, and Netflix originals such as the smash hit Stranger Things. A bonus? As long as you've got a decent monitor resolution, the larger screen on your Chromebook is likely to be a more comfortable platform for watching streaming media than a tiny smartphone screen. (Download Netflix)
MORE: Best Netflix Shows and Movies You're Not Watching (But Should Be)
SoundCloud
The SoundCloud app for Chrome lets users get into one of the world's most popular online music-sharing communities. Users can share their favorite tunes privately among friends, or publicly to blogs, sites, and social networks like Facebook or Twitter. Accounts are free, with premium users able to access statistics, apply custom branding and more. (Download SoundCloud)
Any.do
Any.do is a powerful task management app that's jumped from mobile to desktop with a Chrome App. Any.do lets you create and schedule tasks, complete with associated notes and reminders, through a simple drag-and-drop interface. Tasks can be flagged as priority items, shuffled around the timeline, and organized into folders such as Work or Personal. Additionally, Any.do syncs your tasks between the site, desktop, and mobile apps, meaning you'll receive reminders and notifications on the go and will always have your to-do list on hand. (Download Any.do)
Pocket (formerly Read It Later) is a popular content syncing service that uses a browser extension to save online articles, videos and pictures for later offline viewing, synced across multiple devices. The Pocket Chrome App serves as a standalone viewer for all the content that you've saved, with an optimized article view, customizable font sizes and backgrounds, tagging, search, archiving and sharing through email, Twitter and Facebook. (Download Pocket)
feedly
Another popular feed reader for catching up on the latest news, articles and blogposts is feedly, which allows users to subscribe to topical reading lists or create their own. Users can import their favorite RSS feeds, enter their favorite websites and blogs, and even keep an eye out on keywords, YouTube channels, and social media posts of their favorite influencers. You can view your reading list in a sleek, distraction-free email-like view, or check out a more media rich feed of cards and headlines. You can share content to a variety of social networks and read later services, and work collaboratively with integration to a variety of productivity suites. (Download feedly)
VideoStream
VideoStream is a handy Chrome extension that allows you to stream videos from your computer straight to your Chromecast or Android TV without having to mess around with media server software. VideoStream supports subtitles and a wide variety of video formats at full 1080p resolutions. It's a surprisingly capable video player for a browser extension. Premium users can set up playlists and other premium features, and mobile remote apps provide playback controls and library navigation, allowing you to step away from your HTPC or laptop and settle in for a long night of viewing. (Download VideoStream)
Gmail Offline
Gmail Offline tackles one of the basic weaknesses of webmail services: offline availability. The app syncs your Gmail account whenever you're online, allowing you to access your messages when you're not connected. You can read messages, archive mail, and even write new mail or replies. Then, the next time Gmail Offline detects an Internet connection, it automatically executes all of your offline actions when syncing data. (Download Gmail Offline)
