ARC Welder for Chrome for Windows

Emulators are a popular way to run programs on your PC that typically require a different operating system. ARC Welder is an Android emulator app extension available for free in Google Chrome. With ARC, you can download and run APK (Android package) files from within your browser.

Android emulators

ARC Welder provides similar capabilities to other emulators, such as Anbox, Android-x86 and Bluestacks, except it uses Android Runtime for Chrome. This means that Chrome can open and run APK files in a safe, isolated environment separate from the browser itself. 

Installation and use

You can install ARC Welder from the Chrome extension store. It’s compatible with most versions of Windows, including Windows 10. Since it’s an app rather than an extension, you’ll need to run it by searching via Windows Explorer. However, you can remove it by clicking ‘Manage extensions’ in Chrome.

The first thing ARC Welder does is ask for a save directory on your PC. So you should navigate to and select a suitable folder. Then, you can add/test an APK file. Once it’s loaded, you should see it appear on the ARC Welder dashboard. 

Discontinued

However, you may have trouble running an APK in ARC Welder as it’s been discontinued. There’s no guarantee it’ll run every APK you load into it. If it doesn’t, there’s no longer any technical support available within Chrome, so you’ll have to search online for help.

Although a lack of support is almost always a death knell for any app, that doesn’t mean ARC Welder isn’t useful. You’ll just have to keep this caveat in mind if you choose to use it. If it does work, then you’ve got yourself a free, powerful virtual Android operating system readily accessible from your Chrome browser.

Our take

ARC Welder is undoubtedly a powerful development tool and emulator. However, its instability means it’s also an unreliable app that’s ultimately not worth using, especially when other, regularly-updated Android emulators are available.

Should you download it?

No. It’s built on very useful and potentially powerful code from Google but is too unstable to recommend.