“You know,” shared a colleague going to Gabon, “I love Chromebook! I probably would have gotten a Chromebook if I could Skype on it! But I did get a good deal on my under $700 Lenovo laptop!” Ah, what a difference a few months makes.

Now, Skype works on Chromebooks! Using an Acer C720 Chromebook, I was able to easily follow the instructions outlined in this MakeUseOf.com article entitled, How to Install Skype on a Chromebook. (lots of screenshots there!).

The steps are fairly straightforward, but, of course, what follows are my notes:

1) Check to see if you’re running a 32bit or 64bit. To do that, just go to your Chrome settings and click About. You’ll be able to see fairly quickly…

2) Download and unzip the following two files:

• 64-bit ARChon Runtime zip file
• Skype APK – Tablet

Leave the unzipped files in your Downloads folder.

2) Turn on Developer Mode by going to the 3 horizontal bars in the top right corner of the screen then choosing MoreTools–>Extensions.

3) While still in Developer Mode, click on Load unpacked extension, choosing both the ARChon unzipped file (which will have a funky folder name unzipped), and the Skype unzipped file.

4) Go to Apps and select Skype to start it up.