Android Runtime for Chrome (ARC) is a compatibility layer and sandboxing technology for running Android applications on desktop and laptop computers in an isolated environment. It allows applications to be safely run from a web browser, independent of user operating system, at near-native speeds.

The Android Runtime for Chrome is a partially open-sourced project under development by Google. It was announced by Sundar Pichai at the Google I/O 2014 developer conference. In a limited beta consumer release in September 2014, Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine Android applications were made available in the Chrome Web Store for installation on Chromebook devices running OS version 37 or higher.

As of January 2015^[update], the development by Google is taking place behind closed doors with individual repository commits, code reviews and most issue tracking being kept internal to the company. The open sourced parts of ARC are licensed under a BSD-style license.

In a limited beta consumer release in September 2014, Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine Android applications were made available in the Chrome Web Store for installation on Chromebook devices running OS version 37 or higher.

In October 2014, three more apps were added: CloudMagic, Onefootball, and Podcast Addict.

In March 2015, Anandtech reported that VLC media player should be added in the coming months.

On April 1, 2015, Google released ARC Welder, a Chrome Packaged App providing the ARC runtime and application packager. It is intended to give Android developers a preview of the upcoming technology and a chance to test their Android apps on the Chrome platform.

ARC builds upon the Google Native Client. The Native Client platform is being extended with a POSIX-compatible layer on top of the NaCl Integrated Runtime and Pepper APIs which emulate the Linux environment in the foundation of an Android phone. This then allows running an almost unchanged Dalvik VM in a sandboxed environment.