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Phone Hub for Chrome OS prepares to launch apps directly from notifications
Looks like Google's ecosystem is about to get a whole lot tighter
These days, it’s not enough for a device to be good on its own. It’s all about ecosystem lock-in, working seamlessly alongside all your other gadgets. Google has made some serious ground here, introducing features like Phone Hub to bring Chrome OS and Android closer than ever. With a future upgrade, your Chromebook might be able to launch apps straight from your phone — all with a single click from a notification.
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Google recently rolled out Phone Hub to Chrome OS, a software bridge connecting phones with Chromebooks, making it easier to access recent tabs, notifications, and your phone's hotspot. But it looks like that's just the beginning. We've been tracking a new software codenamed "Eche SWA," and thanks to additional evidence scooped by 9to5Google and XDA, we suspect that you might soon be able to view your phone's screen right on your Chromebook — though the feature might be limited to Pixel phones in the beginning.
There are plenty of options for controlling your phone using a PC. You can use your PC's mouse and keyboard as input devices (like with DeskDock), or have your phone's screen displayed as a window (like with TeamViewer or Vysor). Partnered with Screenovate Technologies, Dell has built its own screen mirroring tool for select Dell and Alienware PCs, called 'Mobile Connect.'
Shortly after the release of Samsung's Galaxy Note 4, owners were dismayed to learn their new phone was unable to mirror its screen to a Chromecast. No other Google Cast apps were affected, but plenty of people still wanted screen casting. Well, it took about a month, but this oversight has finally been remedied. The Note 4 has been officially added to Google's list of devices with support for screen casting. Now your big phone can take the show to an even bigger screen.
Roku already gave users the ability to stream content from their Android devices to their set top boxes, but now the company is taking things a bit further. Instead of select files, the company will give people to capability to stream whatever is on their screen. We've seen this from Miracast devices, we've seen it from Chromecast, and now we're seeing it from Roku. Update: In fact, Roku is using Miracast to deliver this functionality.
Yesterday Google flipped on the Chromecast screen mirroring feature that the company announced last month at Google I/O after teasing us for months. With it, users just tap a single icon to have everything on their screen magically projected onto a television. Forget waiting for individual apps to implement Chromecast support, this feature will let you mirror all the things, and it opens up a world of mobile games to a screen size many of them have never seen before. How well does it work? Phenomenally.