With millions of children currently studying from home, and most likely using cheap computers like Chromebooks, glaring omissions in Chrome OS have come under the spotlight. For example, those who were using Family Link to manage their kids' Google accounts and Chromebooks noticed that they can't install any extensions on them. Maybe that was designed as a security measure, but it hindered the use of video conferencing tools like Zoom and Hangouts. Now that's changing.

An update to Chrome OS 80 began rolling out a few days ago, bringing access to seven approved extensions in the Chrome Web Store on Family Link-managed computers:

• Zoom
• Hangouts
• Time4Learning
• Google Dictionary
• Voice in Voice Typing
• Auto Highlight
• LucidChart

The most interesting ones here are Zoom and Hangouts, but you'll also find a few educational tools. Other useful extensions like Grammarly or EquatIO or even LastPass remain off-limits, for now. Google says that in the next months, parents would be able to approve the installation of other extensions, so this should hopefully become a customizable list that you can adapt to your kids' needs.

In the meantime, if you want them to access some services that exist as Android apps, you should be able to allow them to install those on their Chromebook via the Play Store.

Source: Google Support