Android apps are now available on some chromebooks with the feature rolling out to most chromebooks soon. I have Roon installed on a Acer R11 and the app opens but doesn’t connect to any libraries. Since there is no web interface for Roon it would be great if the Android app worked on chromebooks.
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Jide’s remix OS an option?
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Any updates on this?
Looking at the new Acer R13 Chromebook and would like to use it with the Android app as a remote.
Found this, but Roon devs are probably already aware - https://developer.android.com/topic/arc/index.html
So I went ahead and picked up an Acer R13 Chromebook, and this is what I’ve found.
The Roon app does work, but not very well at the moment. Here’s a list some of the issues, after messing around with it for an hour or so:
- Roon Remote would not find the Core automatically, but I was able to connect manually by inputting the IP address.
- Roon Remote launches by default in a small window, using perhaps 1/6th of the screen. It will run fullscreen if you maximize the window, but the type and images are still small (i.e. 40 albums per screen).
- Scrolling is inconsistent using the trackpad, especially fullscreen. Scrolling inertia seems messed up when scrolling down (but not up, oddly enough. Scrolling sideways through album view is finicky. Touchscreen scrolling works reasonably well.
- No keyboard shortcuts, including standards like ALT+left to go back. Typing in album view has no effect. The keyboard’s dedicated back key works, but forward does not.
- Some targets are very hard to hit or slow to respond with the touchscreen, such as the disc number in a multi-disc album.
- Images are a bit slow to load. Kind of slow overall (compared to Chrome and Netflix app, for example).
Anyhow, I’ll stop there, as I understand that Android app support is still beta within Chrome OS, and that Android apps is a pretty new concept from Google. The fact that it works at all is pretty cool.
As an aside, I will say that Roon works much better than HBO Go, which is barely useable (touch targets are all way off), but Netflix seems to work great - defaults to full screen, text is sized appropriately, and the graphics-intensive UI runs very smoothly. Which gives me hope for Roon.
My question is this (and I’m hoping someone from Roon might chime in here): Is optimizing the Roon app for running on Chromebooks on the radar? If it is, I’m happy to stick it out (and happy to provide beta testing, if that’s helpful). However, if there’s no interest in this from the Roon team, I’ll probably return the Chromebook and get something else as about 50% of the reason for purchase was to use as a Roon Remote.
That said, Android apps on Chromebook looks set to become a widespread thing over the course of the next year, so I hope Roon will support it.
Thanks!
I’ve done some more messing around with Roon on the Acer Chromebook R13, and I’ve come to some conclusions.
After initially entering the Core IP address, I never had to do it again, even after waking the computer from sleep. So that’s no big deal.
It actually works well using only the touchscreen and looks great in fullscreen if you reduce the resolution in Chrome OS settings to 1536x864. This is fine because it seems to me that most websites are actually more readable at this resolution in Chrome.
Performance seems totally reasonable, especially as more images are cached. The Discover page is the only thing that is a bit slow to load.
All other issues seem to have to do with Roon (an Android tablet app) not really knowing what to do with the physical keyboard and trackpad. Which is to be expected as I believe this is only the third Chromebook to support Android apps, and it’s a beta feature.
Overall seems like it will make a good Roon Remote, especially if full keyboard/trackpad functionality gets incorporated. Already, it’s quite a good experience sitting back with the machine in “Stand” mode and using the touchscreen.
Well, its December now and a month later. Encouraged by your experience, I’m going to get a R13 for a dedicated Roon remote. Will post an update here.
Apologies, I meant to update this thread. While the Chromebook experience wasn’t awful, it was annoying enough to me that I decided to return it.
Was planning to wait and see, but wound up getting a stellar deal on a Surface Pro 4 with m3 processor (thus far less).
I have an Asus Chromebook CP100A and its okay. Not my first point of entry for Roon (for which I have a 17" Android Tablet) for the full experience) but its good for making selections from while in bed upstairs.
A couple of things I don’t like is the app is very iffy at connecting to the core. It really is touch and go if it reconnects with the core which is annoying. But I don’t think we can blame Roon as Android support in Chromebook/ChromeOS is a sandboxed implementation based of a fork of the Android IDE -more like a wrapper or a Run Time Environment. Not a whole VM but getting that way.
Android Roon under ChromeOS. Its alright, its not great bit its almost ok. The interface is a bit juddery when sliding left and right which I put down to the Rockchip ARM CPU and other junk I may have running. I mostly look for my phone (which is often in my handbag downstairs when I go to bed) but its nice to have a mini version of the main remote which stays on the coffee table. The biggest issue I have is its so touch and go with finding the core… Unsure if its a high enough priority for devs to look into.
But it does work… Here…
Problem for me is that the Chromebook is not recognised as an audio device… when I play to the default system output it plays through the speakers on my PC (where the server in located).
Bit of a shame.
I recently did a Chromebook update and now Roon Remote has stopped working entirely under Android on a Chromebook. It just looks for the library and progresses no further so a bit annoyed that this Chromebook has one less use.
Yep same here - can not find the server at all now on my ASUS CP100A. Very disappointing.
Bump. Maybe one for @support? I bought a Google Pixelbook this week - nice i5 processor and flips to be a tablet. But same problem - it doesn’t find my core. If I enter the IP address it says it is an invalid IP (using Google Wifi).
Chromebooks could be great for this going forward - higher spec processors from a few manufacturers now, and more than enough screen to support landscape and portrait ala iPad Pro.
Fortunately the BluOS app works well on it, so I have roon via that.
Same here. Can’t resolve it … Not sure what’s up.