An interesting twist on the intersection of Android and Chrome OS
Think you’ve got seen all there’s to see with Google’s Android-Chrome-OS alignment? Think once more, child.
Google/JR Raphael
My, oh my, we certain have come a good distance in these Google-scented quarters of ours.
‘Twas not so way back, in any case, when everybody and their granpappy was fully satisfied that Google needed to be engaged on combining its two major platforms — y’know, these foolish li’l issues we wish to name Chrome OS and Android.
For years, we heard limitless declarations about how Chrome OS was a useless man strolling and the way Android would in some way swallow it as much as kind a magically merged new mega-operating-system (mmm…tastes Chromey). The actuality, after all, was far more nuanced: Google’s saved each Chrome OS and Android round and easily labored little by little to align the 2 entities and make ’em extra complementary, constant, and linked. (Huh. Who woulda thunk?!)
We’ve seen that alignment taking form for years now, however with uncommon exception, it is largely been a one-way street — Chrome OS, in different phrases, taking over increasingly Android-like qualities and feeling ever extra linked to its robot-themed cousin.
But now, as Google appears to be like to alter the narrative round its unstated abandonment of Android tablets and the awkward actuality that Chromebooks have lengthy supplied the superior “Android pill” expertise, the tables are about to show — and the Android-Chrome-OS connection is about to flippity-flop in an interesting new means.
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Let’s dive in and discover it somewhat, we could?
The Android-Chrome-OS connection
First, a fast little bit of context: If you’ve got used and even saved a watch on Chromebooks for lengthy, you are most likely loads conversant in what I’ve lengthy known as the “Androidification of Chrome OS.” From a decidedly Android-inspired Quick Settings and notification design to an Android-reminiscent pill residence display screen interface, the presence of Google Assistant on Chromebooks, and even the adoption of distinctly Android-like gestures for getting across the system, the variety of components Chrome OS has borrowed from Android through the years is staggering.
And actually, that makes an terrible lot of sense. Android’s been round longer than Chrome OS. It’s provided up a extra totally fleshed-out and feature-rich expertise from the get-go. So as Google’s slowly however certainly expanded Chromebooks from their unique barebones, web-portal method into being the all-purpose, platform-defying powerhouses they more and more are at the moment — turning Chrome OS from the “nothing” OS to the “every part” OS, as I’ve put it beforehand — it is solely pure that inspiration would move largely from the Android facet to the Chromebook nook.
Now, as Google’s gearing as much as renew its concentrate on a extra optimum large-screen expertise for Android, it is flipping the script and beginning to deliver concepts from the Chromebook universe into Android. And as soon as extra, it really makes plenty of sense. I imply, give it some thought: Chrome OS has been Google’s major focus for large-screen computing for a while now, with Android being little greater than a forgotten footnote in terms of something beefier than a cellphone.
But this 12 months, that is about to alter. Google’s making it clear it is able to take conventional Android tablets significantly once more and produce ’em onto equal footing with the Chromebook pill expertise. And the extra carefully we see what the corporate’s as much as, the extra apparent it is turning into that a lot of its inspiration for the Android pill setup is certainly coming straight from the realm o’ Chrome OS.
Take, as an illustration, essentially the most outwardly apparent little bit of incoming Chrome-to-Android interface adoption: the persistent new on-screen taskbar current in Google’s fresh-out-of-the-fryer Android 12L launch — in addition to the Android 13 replace that is actively underneath improvement and set to comply with this fall.
You’ve seen this by now, proper? In the brand new Android variations that’ll goal each tablets and foldables later this 12 months, you may get a useful little shelf for storing your favourite shortcuts after which simply hoppin’ over to ’em from any app you are utilizing. See?
JR
And sure, indeedly, if that appears acquainted, it oughta: It’s nearly an identical to the shelf interface that is current on Chromebooks and likewise at all times accessible, regardless of the place you’re within the system or what method of mischief you could be as much as.
JR
Beyond that, Google seems to be engaged on a brand new Chromebook-reminiscent easy profile-switching system for Android 13 that’ll permit for simpler multiuser entry on a single machine. And it is cookin’ up a brand new split-screen system that’ll allow you to drag apps to both facet of a show to position ’em in a side-by-side setup — presumably even ranging from a notification.
Once once more, that is taking a cue immediately from Chrome OS. Chromebooks have a tablet-specific system for doing that exact same form of drag-to-split-screen motion from their oft-overlooked Overview interface:
JR
The examples go on and on from there, and yow will discover much more of ’em within the many glorious overviews of Google’s Android 13 progress. While we have seen loads of concentrate on these types of specifics, although, few tech-watching mammals have zoomed out to think about the broader implications of what this all represents. And you’d higher imagine that is each bit as vital, particularly in terms of understanding Google’s bigger-picture plans and perceptions of its platforms.
At its core, the shift we’re seeing provides as much as create an entire new part for Google’s Android-Chrome-OS alignment — one by which Chromebooks are actually serving because the mannequin and the supply for Android’s incoming enhancements. It’s one heck of a shift from the sample we have seen play out over the previous a number of years, however in the end, it is the identical philosophy — solely flip-flopped for a distinct kind of machine kind.
Whether you utilize an Android machine, a Chromebook, or each, you may take coronary heart in the truth that the 2 platforms are pushing one another ahead and aiding one another’s evolutions in some fairly phenomenal methods. It might not be the long run most people as soon as anticipated to see play out with Google’s two major platforms, nevertheless it’s completely a future that maximizes both sides’s strengths for us — the mere mortals who depend on the related merchandise and tote ’em round in our day-to-day lives.
At the tip of the day, all patterns and techniques and philosophies apart, all that issues to us atypical tech-owning people is that we get the best doable expertise, it doesn’t matter what kind of machine we’re utilizing at any given second. And from the appears to be like of it to this point, it certain looks like Google’s newest efforts will go a delightfully good distance in connecting its digital universes and bringing the most effective of each worlds to these of us who reside in ’em.
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