Samsung
Chromebooks, that are powered by Chrome OS, are usually seen as an easier different to Home windows and macOS programs. However as extra Chromebooks flirt with four-figure worth tags—take, for instance, the Asus Chromebook Flip C436, Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, and not too long ago introduced Acer Chromebook Spin 514—shoppers will begin to demand at the very least a little extra performance. To that finish, a characteristic being labored on in Chromium’s open supply code evaluations software would give Chromebooks a capability that Home windows and macOS machines have already got.
Primarily based on an “add characteristic” flag noticed within the Chromium Gerrit by Chrome Unboxed, you would possibly quickly be capable of reply cellphone calls in your Chromebook by its Cellphone Hub characteristic. The outline for the flag, made to “allow the Incoming/Ongoing name notification characteristic,” says that it “allows the incoming/ongoing name characteristic in Cellphone Hub.”
At present, you need to use Cellphone Hub to view your Android cellphone’s notifications and not too long ago used Chrome tabs and ship and obtain textual content messages. The flexibility to reply cellphone calls would offer you one much less motive to choose up your cellphone. Home windows customers with Android gadgets have already got this selection through Your Cellphone, and macOS customers with iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches have the identical capacity with the Continuity characteristic.
Whereas Cellphone Hub helps telephones working Android 5.1 or later, the brand new characteristic might solely be accessible to Pixel telephones—at the very least initially. That is partially attributable to buzz round Google’s “Eche” initiative, a software program bridge that’s anticipated to reflect Pixel telephones on the Chrome desktop. The corporate hasn’t formally introduced Eche, however word of it additionally got here by the Gerrit grapevine.
In accordance with a short teaser within the Google I/O convention keynote in May, Google can be anticipated to replace Cellphone Hub to allow you to view your most up-to-date pictures in your pc. We hope Google will prolong the options to as many customers as attainable slightly than holding them hostage behind its Pixel telephones.
Microsoft’s Your Cellphone characteristic works with any Android cellphone model 7.0 and up. Contemplating Google makes each Android and Chrome OS, it will be odd if Home windows was extra welcoming of various Android telephones than Chrome OS.
We might be taught extra on October 19, when Google launches the Pixel 6.
