But the free offer is not only for 4G data, a suite of apps is also part of the package which nobody seems to be focusing on. Today we will see what these apps offer & how to enjoy them in a better way than on cramped mobile screen.
The Apps
There are a total of eight different Jio apps offering a variety of services ranging from the usual entertainment package of Movies & Music to News & Cloud Storage. All the content of these apps is also free till 31st December 2016 & an active Jio connection is required to use them. The top row apps are a popular lot and most probably used by everyone with a Jio SIM. The 10 million downloads of each app on Google store are a proof of that. Ok all of that sounds good, but what if you wanted to enjoy John Wick on your laptop with your friends instead of all of them awkwardly towering on your tiny smartphone screen. If your have an Android tablet (they still exist?) or a Chromebook, then you are OK, but for others, Android on PC is the way to go.
RemixOS To The Rescue
Android Emulators are not a new thing, having been existed since the days of Gingerbread. But most of them where laggy, full of bugs & not so user friendly. That changed with the release of RemixOS in January 2016. It was built from ground up to run on x86 hardware(your PC) and the developers didn’t ignore UI like others. The result is lag free performance & a user friendly emulator which is as easy as installing a normal desktop program. So let’s see how to install it first.
Installing RemixOS
There are two variants of RemixOS, one which installs Android as a separate OS called as RemixOS and other, the RemixOS player which runs as an emulator in Windows. Which one to use depends on what you are planning to do with Android. Installing it as a separate OS will give better performance and stability, but you will have to go through the inconvenience of rebooting every time to use Android. On the other hand the player(emulator) is easy to use but you will suffer performance issues if your PC has lower specs. For our present scenario, if you want to use Jio apps on any internet connection, then you will need to use the RemixOS only.
The instructions for installing RemixOS as a separate OS are shown in the above video and the process of installing RemixOS Player is just like any other Windows program, accept the fine print > Click on Nexts till the program is installed.
Running the Jio Apps
After you are up & running with RemixOS, the next step is installing the Jio Apps of your choice. Fortunately RemixOS comes with Google Play services and you just have to click on Play Activation App > Sign in with your Google account to use it. There are some things to note regarding the working of these apps. As I have mentioned at the start, a Jio ID is required to use all the apps. Whether a active Jio connection is required depends on how you have installed RemixOS. In our case, Jio apps on RemixOS worked on any internet connection except JioTV, which crashed often. On RemixOS Player, as I said before, you will need an active Jio connection, either in form of USB tethering or WiFi hotspot. Another Android emulater on which JioTV worked was Bluestacks.
Another Simpler Solution: Arc Welder on Chrome
While RemixOS is great & easy to use, it might be hassle for someone who just wants to enjoy movies on JioCinema & installing the whole Android OS(or emulater) for that might seem too much work. So for those who want to use only a single app, Arc Welder for Chrome is a much easier way. It is a Chrome app which works as Android emulator. So let’s see how to install & use it. Step 1: Install the Arc Welder app for Chrome. Step 2: Open the app from the app launcher by typing chrome://apps in the address bar. Click on Add your APK and point to the location of the saved APK file of your app. In case you don’t know how to get apk of an app, here’s the How-To for that. Step 3: After adding the apk, keep the settings as they are and click on Test to launch the app. I have tested all the apps in ArcWelder and they work perfectly, except JioTV which continues to be stubborn. One thing to note is that Arc Welder requires hardware acceleration enabled to work. You can find out how to enable it here.
Conclusion
So to wrap up, RemixOS & Arc Welder are the two ways by which you can use these apps on any connection. For other emulators, an active Jio connection is required while Jio ID is necessary in all cases. As for these apps, after using them for few months now, I am pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a heap of poorly designed apps with poor content. But not only they are easy to use, the content is vast & varied with new stuff added periodically. Did you find our method useful? Do share you views & thoughts through comments.
