Google has gone public to deny a report from last week that it is currently working on merging its ChromeOS operating system into Android.

The original report claimed that ChromeOS will be folded into Android as the latter has become by far the more dominant operating system while ChromeOS has remained a bit player at best, and that Google engineers have been working on the project to combine the two operating systems for around two years with a goal to launch the new single operating system in 2017 with a beta or preview version to be released as early as next year.

Google’s Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome OS and Chromecast Hiroshi Lockheimer took to the official Google Chrome Blog and claimed that the reports of a merger were the result of “some confusion about the future of Chrome OS and Chromebooks.”

“While we’ve been working on ways to bring together the best of both operating systems, there’s no plan to phase out Chrome OS,” Lockheimer noted, before listing in depth various things Google has achieved, including a launch in the next couple weeks of something called the Asus Chromebit, an $85 device that is said to turn “any display into a computer so you can replace your old desktop with an affordable computer the size of a candy bar, or let businesses transform a billboard into a smart digital sign.”

Further confirming (perhaps) that ChromeOS was here to stay, the blog post also noted that Google plans to release more features for Chrome OS in the near future including a new media player, a visual refresh based on Material Design, improved performance, and improved security. “With our regular six-week software cycle and guaranteed auto-updates for five years, Chromebooks keep getting better over time,” Lockheimer added.

Doth protest too much

The defensive response from Google over the reports that they are looking at merging ChromeOS and Android is an interesting one; on one hand it could be taken seriously as a statement of intent, but reading through the lines, in that it’s nearly over the top defensive, is reminiscent of the line in Hamlet “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

A merger between Android and ChromeOS, although by no means an easy task, makes all the sense in the world for Google in its push to be on every single type of device, and although ChromeOS has its fans it’s always going to be a bit, niche player in the grander scheme of the computer market whereas Android rules mobile by a big margin.

If you were betting on an outcome, you’d still put your money on seeing a new merged operating system being revealed at Google I/O in the last week of May 2016.

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