Your Chromebook laptop gets a huge productivity boost with paired windows, smarter notifications, and more

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Key findings

  • ChromeOS 128 features Snap Groups for improved multitasking.
  • ChromeOS 128 also features improved notification visibility.
  • The camera app now supports OCR.



The last major ChromeOS release brought huge productivity boosts to Chromebook laptops, but many of these were primarily aimed at students. The latest ChromeOS 128 update also includes notable productivity features, but without job-specific restrictions. From Snap Groups to smarter notifications, the latest ChromeOS update has released some handy productivity tools that benefit a wide range of people.


What's new in ChromeOS 128


Snap Groups

The last time Google introduced a major multitasking feature to ChromeOS was the “Faster split-screen setup.” It makes snapping between windows much easier and faster. Building on the same idea, ChromeOS has introduced 128 Snap Groups to improve the multitasking experience.

After completing the ChromeOS 128 installation, your Chromebook laptop will form a Snap Group when you pin two windows. When a group is formed, it acts as a unit, which means you can merge them back together, resize them, and move them around as a group. The Snap Group feature is especially helpful when you want to pin two related windows next to each other. You'll also find this feature on Windows PCs and some of the best Android phones.


Screenshot of Task View in Windows

Better visibility for your important notifications

In addition to the Snap Group, better visibility of important notifications is also part of Google's efforts to give Chromebook devices a productivity boost. As the company explains in its official blog post, the ChromeOS 128 update “significantly differentiates the visual appearance of pinned notifications from typical notifications.”


OCR in the ChromeOS Camera app

In the latest ChromeOS version, you also get an AI-based Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature in the Camera app. The Camera app is now smarter as it can now extract text from the images you take. Your Chromebook laptops can copy the text in those images and read it out loud. Moreover, the OCR support in the Camera app can create searchable PDFs from images. However, this is disabled by default. You can enable it by navigating to Settings > Text recognition in the preview.

HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook (6)

Related

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Privacy Control Reminders

Google has also reduced the steps for effective privacy management. Instead of adjusting privacy settings and app permissions in two different places, you now get information about the status of current privacy controls and actionable reminders on the ChromeOS app settings page. Navigate to Settings > Apps > Manage your appsand then select the app for which you want to adjust the privacy settings.


Magnifier and ChromeVox work together

ChromeOS version 128 also offers something for people who are blind or visually impaired. When you use the ChromeVox tool to read text aloud, the magnifier automatically follows the word being read aloud. To enable this, you need to enable both the magnifier and ChromeVox in the settings. You can also control the magnifier's zoom level.

Other important changes

Not all Chromebook devices come with cellular capabilities, but if you do, ChromeOS lets you more easily view, manage, and add 128 Access Point Names (APNs). Another notable change is that automatic gain control is now enabled by default. This means your Chromebook laptop now automatically allows apps to optimize the microphone volume for the best audio quality. You can switch to manual control by going to Settings > Device > Audio and deselection Allow apps to automatically adjust microphone volumeFinally, Google is changing its policy on storing aggregated vital data, including performance metrics for Android apps. The company will now store this data for a year to improve the performance of Android apps on Chromebooks.


ChromeOS 128 features will be rolled out gradually

As with all stable ChromeOS releases, version 128 is being rolled out in phases, so if you don't see the update on your Chromebook, you'll have to be a little more patient and wait a few more days for Google to push it to your laptop.

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