4 useful Chromebook upgrades Google did not point out in its I/O keynote

Google has solved a basic drawback with Chromebook gaming in a reasonably superior means: How do you play Android contact video games on Chromebooks with out a touchscreen? For a very long time, the reply was merely: you don’t. However Google has give you a technique to remap keyboard inputs to the touch controls, for each sport within the Google Play Retailer, together with a number of different useful Chromebook tweaks.

For no matter motive, Google neglected ChromeOS and Chromebooks completely from its keynote at Google I/O, which included AI-powered search enhancements and a few reasonably fascinating AI tweaks to Gmail. However within the ongoing debate over whether or not to purchase a laptop computer or a Chromebook, factoring in the latest advances to Chromebooks matter. This week, Google executives provided up a sneak peek of the cooler new Google applied sciences coming sooner or later.

Google calls this Sport Controls. The know-how was first proven off in 2022 on a restricted set of titles, in response to Emilie Roberts, developer relations engineer for Google. But it surely’s been revamped with a greater editor, and broader protection throughout all the apps within the Play Retailer. Sport Controls is being examined in ChromeOS m125, at present in beta, and might be launched to the steady channel “quickly,” she stated.

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Likewise, Google is taking a web page from different gaming platforms, and permitting avid gamers to seize clips from their favourite video games. “Players can seize video and screenshots, share them on social media, all with out interrupting their gameflow,” Roberts stated. She didn’t say when the function can be launched.

Google can be providing a pair of recent options designed to make it simpler so that you can add apps to Chromebooks, in addition to for builders to make them extra discoverable. The primary, and most outstanding, might be an “Add to Chromebook” button that you could be see on the web sites of apps, letting you rapidly add the app in launchable standalone type. It really works with each PWAs (Progressive Internet Purposes) in addition to Android apps, in response to Sam Richard, a senior developer advocate for Google. Clicking on the button opens up the corresponding entry within the Play Retailer. It’s anticipated to launch in Chrome OS 125, which is rolling out over the course of the following few days and weeks.

The “Add to Chromebook” button is stay, although builders must implement themselves. Eighteen developer companions have already signed up or dedicated to make use of the brand new “Add to Chromebook buttons, he stated.

“Whereas lots of people search for apps on the Play Retailer, Google Search can be extremely fashionable for app discovery,” Richard stated. “Many of us who begin the invention in search find yourself in your web site.”

Google / YouTube

Lastly, Google is showcasing a tabbed PWA mode. When you obtain a PWA, Google says, you’ll have the ability to basically set up it as a tab, reasonably than every in a separate app window. Figma showcased an early instance of this, with the house web page in a single tab, and extra recordsdata being opened and labored on in different, separate tabs. It’s paying homage to the tabbed “Units” interface Microsoft tried out after which deserted, however resurfaced contained in the tabbed interface of File Explorer.