[U: Fixed] Chrome OS 96 seems to be causing issues with Android apps for some users

Ben Schoon | Dec 16 2021 - 5:47 pm PT

Android apps have become a pretty important part of Chrome OS over the past few years, doing everything from plugging the app gap to making Chromebook tablets a viable Android tablet replacement. However, Chrome OS 96 seems to be causing issues with Android apps for some users.

About Chromebooks has spotted reports over the past several days that point to a handful of seemingly random issues mainly revolving around Android apps. A thread on Google’s support forums revealed an issue with Android apps simply not working, with one user even adding that the Play Store itself is broken following the update. Apparently, a powerwash (reset) can solve many of these problems. 67 issues are marked Chrome OS 96 on Google’s bug tracker, but notably, v96 doesn’t seem to be causing these issues across the board, and only for a higher-than-usual number of people.

Google has responded to some of these reports, saying that work is underway to fix the known issues.

Thank you again for taking time to bring this inability to launch apps, after updating to M96, to our attention. Our team is aware of this and are working quickly to resolve this issue.

While a good number of Chromebook owners seem to have already downloaded and installed Chrome OS 96, Google seems to have paused the rollout until a fix has been applied, as Google currently shows Chrome OS 94 as the latest stable version.

Update 12/16: Google has confirmed that Chrome OS 96 has started rolling out again in a support post. The rollout should hit most devices over the next couple of days.

We have identified a solution and will be rolling out a new version of M96 to devices over the next couple of days. Please attempt to update your device to resolve this issue and feel free to share feedback with our team if this issue persists for you.