Google links Android phones to Chromebooks with new Phone Hub feature

Google is celebrating 10 years of Chromebooks by unveiling new features for Chrome OS today. The biggest addition is a new Phone Hub feature that connects an Android phone to a Chromebook. It allows Chrome OS users to reply to text messages, check a phone’s battery life, turn on its Wi-Fi hotspot, and easily locate a device.

Phone Hub is packed into a taskbar widget that even expands to show you recent Chrome tabs you’ve browsed on your phone. It looks like this will be a very useful feature for Android and Chromebook owners. Google is also enabling its Wi-Fi sync feature on more devices, allowing you to connect to Wi-Fi networks you’ve already set up and used on your Android phone and other Chrome OS devices.

Image: Google

Another important addition to Chrome OS is nearby sharing between Chromebooks and other Android and Chrome OS devices. Much like AirDrop, nearby sharing will allow users to send and receive files between devices. Google says it’s coming to Chrome OS in the coming months, finally providing its laptop operating system with a full AirDrop competitor.

Elsewhere, Google is also adding a new screenshot tool to the Chrome OS Quick Settings menu. As the name suggests, this will allow you to record your screen or take screenshots and quickly access them in a “Tote” space on the Chrome OS shelf.

The Clipboard is also being improved in Chrome OS, allowing you to save five recent items to paste elsewhere without switching windows. The Launcher Key will grant access to this updated clipboard experience. Another new addition is Quick Answers, which allows you to right-click a word in Chrome OS to get a definition, translation, or unit conversion. It’s very similar to what exists in macOS today.

Google is even improving the functionality of virtual desktops in Chrome OS – Desks. When you restart a Chromebook, it will now restore all windows to their correct virtual desktops, and you can also right-click at the top of an open window to send apps to different virtual desktops.

Image: Google

Most of these new additions to Chrome OS are clearly catching up to what’s already on Windows and macOS, but they’re welcome additions for those who use Chrome OS every day. Google first launched a line of Chromebooks in 2011 in partnership with Samsung and Acer. There are now Chromebooks from all the major PC makers, and Google is promising 50 new Chromebooks will launch in 2021.