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Ultra-wideband (UWB) promises big things in the world of short-range connectivity: Bluetooth-like functionality, but with the bandwidth to stream video; zero lag couch co-op laptop gaming, and classroom computers that can screenshare without Wi-Fi. But for as much potential as UWB offers, though, it has yet to see widespread implementation. Perhaps we'll soon be seeing it come to new devices types, though, as Google Chrome source code shows devs at work preparing Chromebooks to support the protocol.
Google Chrome may soon share just how much memory each tab is hogging
More transparency is always welcome
We usually speak of Chrome's memory usage with a negative connotation, even though Google's browser is one of the best options out there. With Chrome 108, Google started taking decisive steps to shed this image, rolling out new features like Memory Saver to help reduce RAM usage and extend battery life. Now, it seems Chrome wants to be more up front about exactly what is hogging all your memory.
Chromebooks could soon get one of the best Mac and iPhone Continuity features
It looks like you can make phone calls right on your laptop in the future
Chromebooks already integrate pretty neatly with phones, allowing you to see your notifications, recent photos, and battery status right in the Phone Hub living on the right side of the Chrome OS taskbar. As discovered by Chrome Unboxed, you might soon also be able to make phone calls right from your Chromebook — pretty similar to what Apple has long offered with Continuitiy on MacBooks and iPhones.
Chromebooks are getting better keyboard and mouse support in games with this new change
It extends keyboard and mouse support to incompatible games
Many of us have been working from home for a long time now, and if you've got a stressful job, it's vital to take time relaxing and winding down after work. With the vast catalog of apps now available for Chromebooks thanks to the Play Store, it's easier than ever to get hooked on addictive games like PUBG or Among Us. But despite Google's efforts to optimize Android on Chrome OS, a lot of games are still incompatible with keyboard and mouse input — simply because the developers built them for phones and tablets. So if your Chromebook lacks a touchscreen, you've been out of luck. Thankfully, it looks like that may soon change.
You probably never thought you'd be making goofy GIF selfies on your Chromebook, but here we are
Google is bringing a GIF maker to your Chromebook's camera
GIFs have ruled the internet for the past three decades, and while other image file formats offer more colors and better compression, they just can't touch GIF's trump card: animation. People use these eye-catchy animations everywhere, whether expressing their mood, or reacting to a meme on platforms like Instagram or Twitter. If you're tired of using the same GIFs over and over, there are plenty of tools around for making your own animations. Soon, even your Chromebook may be lending its hand to help create your goofiest GIF yet.
Google is giving your Chromebook the nerdiest possible customization
Soon you'll be able to set your own custom hostname
Network administration is one of those annoying realities of using so many connected devices, and while there are plenty of tools that can help streamline things, sometimes it feels like Chromebooks are doing everything they can to make the task more difficult. Right now, it's a hassle to even identify your Chromebook on your local network because Chrome OS doesn't broadcast your device's hostname — a unique label that helps it stand out. As a result, diagnosing even simple wireless issues is more painful than it needs to be, forcing you to deal with cumbersome IP addresses. Thankfully, you won't have to wait much longer before you can assign your Chromebook a convenient, easy-to-recognize hostname of its own.
Get ready to say goodbye to potato-quality Chromebook screen captures
Lackluster video quality will be a thing of the past
It's no secret that it can be a Herculean effort to find decent screen recorder software for Chromebooks. Most online capture tools lock functionality (like recording in native resolution) behind an expensive subscription paywall, so you'd have to pay up just to unlock a basic feature. Google has been working to end your recording woes by adding a native solution for Chrome OS in its big 89 update, but unseekable captures and lackluster video quality made it mostly useless. The good news is that may soon change in a future Chrome OS update.
Google Assistant is going goth, with dark mode coming to a future Chrome OS update
Light theme is getting some tweaks, too
It's been almost a year since Google started working on giving Chrome OS some darker hues. Despite dark mode's long development time, it still looks pretty unfinished today (even in Canary), and we'll probably be waiting for some time before Google officially launches it. With the highly requested feature slowly trekking its way towards the finish line, Google has been steadily rolling out updates that introduce new sprinkles of dark theme goodies, like dynamic theme switching and scheduled dark mode. And now, Google Assistant is raring to embrace its new goth makeover.
Google's built-in price tracking for Chrome is inching closer to reality
It helps make shopping products at their lowest price much easier
It's no secret that we're constantly looking for ways to save our hard-earned cash when we purchase things. While there are plenty of resources to help us hunt for deals, it still requires a bit of work on our end to find the best prices. Thankfully, Google has been working to bring a price tracker to Chrome for Android, and with a future update, it could be even easier to find products at their best prices.
It's about damn time: Your Chromebook will finally let you sort your apps in the launcher
After ignoring user feedback for years
It's no secret that your Chromebook's app launcher could use a serious user experience overhaul. As it is today, Chrome OS is devoid of any method of sorting your apps, meaning all rearrangement of your apps has to be done by hand, and it creates new pages in the launcher seemingly at random. The end result is an unusable mess, making it frustrating to find your important apps unless you use the search bar. After years of neglecting user feedback, it seems Google is finally doing something about it.
Phone Hub for Chrome OS won't destroy your phone's battery in a future update
Phone Hub is great, but not when it ruins your Android phone's battery life
Phone Hub was a big deal when Google launched it with Chrome OS 89 a few months back. The feature finally brought the cross-device synergy that Android and Chromebook fans have been waiting for, with the ability to respond to your phone's messages, view its status, and more. The launch didn't go smoothly at all, however, with many reporting bugs like severe Android battery drain that outweighs any reason to use it. That may soon change, though, as Google is finally working on a fix to prevent it from killing your phone's battery.
Chromebook tablet multitasking will soon be less janky
Much-needed performance optimizations are on the way
Anyone with a Chromebook knows its tablet mode experience could definitely use a ton of work. As things are now, it's frustrating to multitask with side-by-side windows: dragging the window divider causes severe UI lag, screen tearing, and flashes, even on a high-end machine. Worse, the sluggish performance has been around for years — it's a contributing reason to why Google stopped pursing tablet devices. And despite the massive amount of media backlash, it's received nearly zero developer attention, leaving a broken experience behind. Yet now there's hope that story may finally change soon.
This small change could help with poor framerates in games on Chromebooks
A new change may make slow games feel a lot more responsive
Chromebooks are no ordinary machines: they're powered by Google's Chrome browser, offering a speedy, simple, and secure web surfing experience. The experience is also a lot more versatile than its "Chrome OS" moniker implies, leveraging a slew of virtualization technologies so you can enjoy using Android and desktop Linux apps on your Chromebook. The added security benefits from virtualization comes at a penalty of less efficiency — Google's implementation is no exception. Thankfully, Google has been working hard to mitigate the performance hit, and in a future update, Android games will start running even more smoothly.
An upcoming Chrome OS change could solve one of my UI pet peeves
Small quality of life improvements go a long way
Whether you're a newbie or a diehard Chromebook fan, it's easy to familiarize yourself with Google's operating system. Just like the Windows taskbar, Chrome OS offers quick access to your favorite apps and active windows so you can easily play or get work done. Keeping apps just a click away is as simple as dragging them into the taskbar from the launch or by its right-click menu. With an upcoming update, Google is working to further improve the taskbar, solving a gripe I've had with Chrome OS for a while.
Multitasking on Chrome OS with an external keyboard will soon be even easier
You won't have to guess which function key opens Overview mode
Let's be honest: it's outright frustrating to remember which function key on your external keyboard activates each Chrome OS feature, especially when you're trying to get work done. That's because Google designed these functions around its own keyboard layout, which has symbols that illustrate what they do. Google eases the friction a bit by including a shortcut on the taskbar to launch overview mode, but for now, it shows up only when connecting a keyboard to a Chrome tablet. That may soon change, as Google is working to make Chrome OS more user-friendly with any keyboard.
Google is trying to overhaul the Bluetooth stack on your Chromebook... again
Floss could finally put your Bluetooth woes to rest
The Bluetooth story on Chromebooks is... weird. Wireless peripherals have been experiencing frequent stability problems for years now, multiple Chromebooks shipped with a buggy Bluetooth controller from Intel, and Google backpedaled on its ambitious efforts to rebuild Bluetooth from scratch to 'fix' its myriad issues. It's hard to pin down what happened exactly, but on the bright side, Google has managed to resolve most of its Bluetooth issues via software updates — even adding some goodies along the way. It seems Google hasn't given up on its plans for a broader Bluetooth overhaul, and it's now trying again with another Bluetooth stack.
Your Chromebook is getting a new wallpaper feature from... Windows 10?
Custom wallpaper syncing is on the way
Hunting for that perfect family photo or stylish Unsplash pic to use for your PC and smartphone wallpaper can be time consuming, especially when you get around to applying it everywhere. That situation is mostly unchanged with Chromebooks — the exception being with its stock backgrounds, which can magically sync across all your Chrome devices when applied. Chrome OS started testing sync for custom wallpapers a few months back, but the ability got pulled shortly thereafter. There's been radio silence on whether the feature will come back — until our discovery made today.
Chromebooks will finally get usable native screen recording soon
But you'll need to wait until Chrome OS 93 to get it
Chromebooks have had a long history of lackluster screen recording software — most requiring an expensive subscription to unlock essential features. It was just a few updates ago that Google added a native solution for Chrome OS, sporting a fancy capture bar that's intuitive to use. While the upgraded screen capture experience is a welcomed change — especially tablet users — the screen recorder component is unusable for long recordings. You aren't able to seek through your captures unless you convert the WebM format into something else like for lectures. You won't have to wait much longer, as Google is finally making its screen recorder usable.
Chrome OS will work better with all monitor orientations soon
Because its existing window management made zero sense with one
Computer monitors have been growing up over the years. Once small-screened and bulky, the monitors of today are larger and wider — perfect for multi-window productivity. Some displays can even rotate to a vertical portrait orientation, allowing coders and photo editors to see more of their content. One drawback of going vertical is the lackluster multi-window experience — and Chrome OS does nothing to fix this (except in tablet mode). As it is, you can only dock windows to the left or right side of the screen, resulting in a squished mess. Your multitasking nightmares may soon be over, as Google's been working on some critical changes to how Chrome OS works with vertical monitors.
Chromebooks are getting one of Android's best Bluetooth features
Effortless Bluetooth pairing for your Chromebook
It's no secret that Chromebooks have had a rough history with Bluetooth. From middling stability to audio cut-outs, using wireless devices on Chrome OS has long been subpar. Fast forward to today, and the Bluetooth situation has improved — albeit still with some minor hiccups. One of the most annoying issues with Bluetooth is its tedious pairing process, which Google took it upon itself to fix with Fast Pair in 2017. While that brought seamless pairing to Android devices, support for Chromebooks is nonexistent. After a long hiatus, it seems Google will finally add the long-overdue Fast Pair to Chrome OS.