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Today is the 10th anniversary of Chrome OS and Google has announced a series of incredible new features in Chrome OS 89 to celebrate. The milestone update improves Chromebooks with a number of changes to improve the user experience. Here are some of the features of Chrome OS that Google announced today that are reaching qualifying devices.
Phone hub and Wi-Fi synchronization
It’s been a month since we covered a functional version of Phone Hub on Chrome OS. Since then, Google has been working behind the scenes to prepare for its launch. The Phone Hub is coming to Chrome OS 89, promising closer integration between Android and Chromebooks. You’ll be able to respond to your phone’s text messages, view your phone’s battery and signal, and locate it from your Chromebook. The phone’s hub also shows some of the recent Chrome tabs on your phone so you can easily pick up where you left off. This feature also adds an enhanced Wi-Fi sync that saves your network passwords between your devices.
To use Phone Hub, you need to have the latest Google Play service installed on your phone. You should see the Phone Hub on the shelf after turning on your phone’s Chromebook and Bluetooth.
Close sharing is also coming to Chromebooks, which Google tips are expected to reach for Chromebooks in the coming months. If you don’t want to wait, you can enable the flags via chrome: // flags / # nearby-sharing and chrome: // # enable-sharesheet
Updated screen capture experience
Google is updating the screen capture experience to make it discoverable and intuitive. The new tool allows you to take a complete, partial or windowed screen capture and even cook on a screen recorder. You will be able to access the screen recorder and capture tools directly in the shelf settings. The additional discovery allows tablets to access these tools without connecting a keyboard. The screen recorder can switch the microphone and save your recordings in .webm. On my Pixel Slate, it records at an average of 30FPS with an audio sampling rate of 48 kHz.
Never lose your files with Tote
No one likes to delve deep into their maze of directories to find their files. To resolve this frustration, Google is adding Tote (formerly Holding Space) to Chrome OS 89, a useful productivity feature. Tote allows quick access to your screenshots and recent downloads from the taskbar. You can also pin your essential files to it to never lose control of your directories. You can also drag and drop files and photos into Chrome apps with your mouse or finger, saving time.
To increase your productivity, pin your important files by right clicking and select Pin. The pinned and recent files will appear on the shelf next to the system tray.
Enhanced media controls
Google is tidying up the notification tray on Chrome OS 89, reviewing media controls. Instead of getting in your way, Chrome OS places the media controls inside a card below the toggle buttons. You can search (fast forward or rewind), pause and play or dismiss notifications. To keep playback active with just clicks away, you can choose to pin it to the shelf. Similar to the media controls of Android 11, it looks and feels much more polished than old-style cards.
Supercharged Virtual Desks
Virtual desks are getting a significant update to Chrome OS 89 to help increase their productivity. You can add up to eight virtual tables, rearrange them with the cursor and send windows to a specific table. Virtual desks will also be persistent during device restarts, so you can get right to work.
Quick answers
Google is launching Quick Answers for Chromebooks to make it easier to find answers. With Google Assistant technology, Quick Answers offers definitions, conversions and translations. A new Google Assistant card will appear after you right-click on a word on a webpage.
Enhanced clipboard
Chrome OS 89 comes with a clipboard manager that further increases your productivity. Instead of guessing which words you copied, you can consult the clipboard manager. This feature gives you the freedom to be creative with the text or image you’re working on without fear of losing it. This helps to maintain a better workflow when writing or switching between Chrome windows.
To use the enhanced clipboard, copy any image or text from a web page and press the Launcher (Everything) + V key. Up to five recent copied items will be displayed in the clipboard manager.
Simplified Family Link
Google has simplified the Family Link setup that you’ll see the first time your device boots Chrome OS 89. When parents set up their kids’s personal Google account, they can add a school account. Parents can supervise their children while they use school apps, like Classroom. They can also help your children create a PIN for easy access to the account.
Media application annotation
With Chrome OS 89, you’ll be able to unleash your inner Picasso (not really) by annotating photos in the media app. You will have access to three drawing media: pen, highlighter and eraser. The size of the paint ranges from “extra-fine” to “extra-thick”, and a handful of color options. This feature helped me take notes after taking a screenshot and increased my meme game.
To take notes, double-click on any image in the file application. After the media application is started, click on the annotation tool next to the photo edit button.
Intuitive select-to-speak
Google is working hard to make Chromebooks more accessible to people with disabilities. In Chrome OS 89, developers have revamped the select to speak user experience. It has new controls that speed up, slow down and pause the voice, as well as skip to different parts.
You can enable Select to speak by toggling the feature in the Accessibility section of Chrome OS settings.
A new set of icons
Most Chrome OS integrated application icons now have a new coat of paint to match the aesthetics of the operating system. Canvas and Calculator are some of a handful of updated system app icons and look stylish.
Scanning application
Scan your papers with native scanning
Digging through your file to recover something is a nuisance. With Chrome OS 89, the native scanner application scans your documents so you can retrieve them in a snap. You can customize the scan settings in Chrome OS to change the color mode, page size and resolution. Clicking the scan button will capture and save the document on your Chromebook.
If you are ready to make digital copies of your documents, open the scanning application in the launcher to get started.
The features highlighted in the official Google announcement only scratch the surface of what’s new in Chrome OS 89. I’ll delve deeper into more new experimental features in future articles. Chrome OS 89 may take a few days to reach your device, but overall, it’s an exciting release that’s worth waiting for.
We would like to thank Google for sending us exclusive gifts in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Chrome OS, which includes a travel bag with an iconic colored bar and stickers.