

You can access the Beta Channel for Google Play Store. If you have an older Chromebook, all is not lost. Select an app from the Google Play Store as you would on a phone and install it.Not all Chromebooks will need to do this. Select Enable Google Play Store on your Chromebook if you see the option.Select your account photo in the status tray of your Chromebook.

If you have a new Chromebook, do this to add new apps: Only newer Chromebook work without a little fettling. Older Chromebooks aren’t fully compatible with the current range of Google apps. Once you have connected to the internet it’s just a matter of downloading and installing. The Chromebook is pretty barebones when you first unbox it but you can quickly add apps. You can now single click the icon to launch that program. Once done, a shortcut to that app will appear wherever you have your shelf. Right click the app and select Pin to shelf.Find the app you want to add to your shelf.If you’re setting up your Chromebook for the first time, any app you install will automatically add itself to your shelf. I will cover adding apps in a minute but as the title of this tutorial is adding shortcuts, I will cover that first. If you want to add shelf shortcuts to your Chromebook, it is about as easy as it can be. Once you have loaded some apps onto your machine, you can then add shortcuts to those apps on your shelf. This is one of the first customizations a new Chromebook user makes. Like that on a Mac, you can add or remove shortcuts in that launcher so it works how you want it to. It is a quick launcher like that in MacOS that allows you to quickly launch your favorite programs with a single click. The Taskbar in Chrome OS is called the Shelf.
