The official ChatGPT Android app has started rolling out in the Play Store, offering users a quick and convenient way to interact with the AI chatbot. For mobile phone users, having the app installed provides a small increase in convenience as they can access it without opening Chrome and navigating to the website. It proves to be useful for quick queries and tasks on the go.
However, Chromebook users may not find the app as impressive. Although it can be installed on ChromeOS via the Play Store, the experience it offers does not measure up to the simplicity and ease of use provided by the web version. Users can simply pin the web version to their shelf, making it function like an app.
The Android app lacks native functionality and simple tasks such as copy/paste become less straightforward on a Chromebook. Unlike the web version, which allows users to copy text like any other browser text, copying text in the Android app requires an awkward long-press of the mouse, followed by selecting the text and another long press to grab the desired results. This adds unnecessary complexity to a previously seamless experience.
Considering the excellent performance and user-friendly interface of the web version on a Chromebook, installing the ChatGPT Android app seems impractical and unnecessary. Users can simply bookmark or save chat.openai.com in Chrome to have a far better overall experience.
While the current Android app may not be compelling enough for Chromebook users, future updates that allow interaction with device features could add more value. However, until then, it is difficult to justify having the app installed on a Chromebook.