Using Android on a Chromebook? Here are three apps that I recommend pinning to your Shelf aka taskbar, that line of apps on the bottom of your screen.

I have pinned three Android apps to the Shelf for various reasons. I’ll explain what those are and why I have pinned them to the Shelf.

Android Settings App

Occasionally I open Android Settings app on my Chromebook to check something or make some changes like clearing app cache.

To open the Android Settings app, I will have to open Chrome OS Settings app first and then navigate to the Play Store section, and then click Manage Android preferences.

How do I make it easier to access? Pin it to the shelf!

To pin the app to the shelf, first, open the app like I mentioned above. You will now see the Settings app icon (green color gear icon). Now, right click this icon and choose “Pin”

The next time you want to launch Play Store settings, you can click this icon from your Shelf, just one click!

Google’s ‘Clock’ App

Google’s official “Clock” app comes pre-installed on Chromebooks. However you cannot launch it from the Launcher. You can however open it using a workaround and then keep it pinned to the shelf for easy access.

To open the Clock app, first launch the Play Store app on your Chromebook. Now, search for “Clock” and you should see the official Clock app by Google. It’ll say “Installed”.

Open the Clock app page and click Open.

Now, right click the clock icon on the shelf and pin it.

That’s not it.

Now that you have the Clock app pinned to the Shelf, you have a few nifty features that you can use by right-clicking the app icon.

Now, you can:

• Set alarms
• Use the timer
• Use the stopwatch
• Make Clock your Screen saver

Well, not sure if you can really use it as an alarm clock. Unless you tweak some settings the Chromebook will go to “sleep” mode and your alarm won’t go off.

You should check out the other options though!

Google Contacts

Google Contacts Android app is yet another pre-installed app that you cannot open from the launcher. You’d be better off with contacts.google.com on the web, but, what if you need the app?

Open the Play Store app, search for Contacts and click Open. Now, pin it to the shelf!

You cannot make calls from your Chromebook yet. Still, I added the Contacts app to my Shelf just because I like the way it looks!

So there you have it. These are the three apps that I recommend you pin to your Shelf. Let me know what you think!