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On Chrome OS today, you can easily connect your Android phone to your Chromebook for things like text messages / RCS, automatic Wi-Fi hotspot, and Smart Lock, all part of the “Better Together” initiative. From Google. Now, Chrome OS is gearing up to expand with a new Android “Phone Hub” that promises notifications and “task tracking”.
Compared to Better Together on Chrome OS, the Your Phone app for Windows 10, which also requires you to install an app on your phone, lets you send and receive text messages, manage your photos, and use multimedia controls on your phone. On some Samsung devices, the Your Phone app can even handle cross-device copy / paste and display your device screen.
While some would say Windows 10 is a more ‘full-fledged’ operating system than Chrome OS, it’s still interesting to see Microsoft offering deeper integration with Android phones than the laptop’s own platform / Google desktop.
Fortunately, Google seems to be developing a deeper integration between Android and Chrome OS, according to a new code change we discovered last week. In the change we find a new indicator to be added to the chrome: // indicators which refers to a new feature called “Phone Hub”.
Activate Phone Hub
Provides a user interface for users to view information about their Android phone and perform phone-side actions in Chrome OS.
# enable-phone-hub
It’s pretty clear from this description that Phone Hub should have more functionality than Chrome OS offers today, as the only information and “phone-side actions” currently available is viewing and responding to messages.
In another code change, we see Phone Hub is in a new section on the same Connected Devices page, just below Instant Connection Sharing, Smart Lock, and Messages. In this section, Google adds three new parameters.
Phone hub notifications
Phone hub notifications badge
Continuing Phone Hub Tasks
The first two are pretty self-explanatory, letting you see and manage notifications from your Android phone on your Chromebook, although we don’t yet know where the “notifications badge” will appear.
On the other hand, “Task Continuation” is an incredibly exciting prospect, which in some ways plays on Google’s motivation for “ambient computing”. Essentially, ambient computing is all about getting things done on the device of your choice, rather than having to use one particular device over another.
While details are slim right now, we think keeping Phone Hub going heavily involves picking up your Chromebook from where you left off on your Android phone. What we don’t know yet is whether perhaps this continuation of tasks is limited to seamless moving tabs between devices, or whether Chrome OS’s Android app support could help you get back to business. ‘an application.
As Phone Hub is still in the very early stages of development, the only other detail we could find out is that your Android and Chrome OS devices will connect via Bluetooth. For now, that obviously leaves many questions unanswered, such as when we should expect Chrome OS’s Phone Hub to be released and whether an app will be needed. We will continue to keep an eye on Phone Hub as it progresses and things get clearer.
Update 8/15: Google’s Chrome OS team have continued to make progress on these new Phone Hub features coming to Chromebooks. The latest code change includes a link to a video showing part of the Phone Hub user interface in action.
In the video, we see a new “Notifications” toggle that opens a prompt asking you to “Turn on toggle notifications under Google Play Services> Chromebook Phone Hub from your phone.” This tells us that unlike your Microsoft phone which requires you to install an app, the Chrome OS phone hub will be integrated with Google Play services.
As development still seems early, it is likely that the exact wording could be changed as Phone Hub gets closer to launch. And of course our APK Insight team will keep an eye on Google Play services for any signs that Phone Hub is coming to the Android side.
What do you wish you could do on your phone from your Chromebook? Let us know in the comments.
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