Google has announced that they will cease support for Chrome Packaged Apps (or Chrome Apps) on the ChromeOS (Chromebook) platform. The date for this support status change has been modified several times by Google, so plans may change again. Most recently, Google has said that Chrome Apps will be supported through January 2025. Vernier plans to continue supporting and updating Chrome Apps through at least June 2023.

Google’s recommended replacement for a Chrome App is a recent type of app called a Progressive Web App (PWA). This change will affect the following Vernier apps:

• Graphical Analysis (and Graphical Analysis Pro)
• Spectral Analysis
• Instrumental Analysis

The current versions (and anticipated updates for now) of these apps are Chrome Packaged Apps, and thus will cease working when Google drops support. To continue to provide data collection support on Chromebooks, we will transition our apps for Chromebooks to the Progressive Web App format before Google’s change. There will be a time when both app types will be available simultaneously. We plan to begin releasing PWA versions of these apps in the latter half of 2022.

In anticipation of this change, Vernier introduced our first Progressive Web App in 2020, called Vernier Video Analysis.

One notable difference with Progressive Web Apps is that they are launched by pointing your Chrome web browser to a specific URL. Apps will not longer be installed in the manner of a Chrome Packaged App. For example, Vernier Video Analysis is reached at https://videoanalysis.app

Even though the app is hosted at a domain, Vernier Progressive Web Apps run locally, and no user information is uploaded to Vernier servers. This means that once activated, Vernier apps can be used while your Chromebook is offline.

Use of Vernier PWAs will require that IT administrators allow access to the .app domain.

What domains need to be allow-listed for Graphical Analysis and Vernier Video Analysis?