Google’s Cultural Institute is chock full of interesting apps and plugins, as well as many beautiful works of art. In the past, we’ve seen them work with Google itself to release the Street Art Watchface, as well as a Chrome browser extension that allows your new tab page to be populated by a new work of art each time, both pulling from the Cultural Institute’s catalog of famous and amateur works. Now, the Cultural Institute has released a new, even more full-featured art showcase for Chrome lovers everywhere.
Meet Google Wallpaper Art, the new Chrome app to add a little artwork to your browsing life. Pulling from the Cultural Institute’s collection of artwork, the app allows you to automatically set a random work of art as your Chrome OS-clad device’s wallpaper. Once installed, you’ll get to click on it to open the app, and the wallpaper you set for yourself will be automatically replaced with the daily work from the Cultural Institute. Once inside a new wallpaper sets, you’ll be given a little notification with title, artist, and where the physical work is stored on Earth. Inside the app, you’re given the same information, but also the option to manually switch to a new wallpaper, if the current one doesn’t fit your fancy.
The app is as simple as that, but that’s the best part. If you don’t like having a wallpaper you didn’t pick pop up automatically, you’ll just uninstall the Wallpaper Art app and carry on with your chosen wallpaper. The collection of works in the Google Cultural Institute is massive, and repeat sightings might only ever occur if you have the new tab extension as well as the app, and purposefully cycle through, so you’ll always get a fresh look, and you might find a work to visit in-person next time you vacation near its physical location, or you can take this as your miniature daily art tour.
This new app from Google is a great implementation of a live wallpaper-esque feature on Chrome OS, which many people might enjoy, especially since the desktop on Chrome OS is really good at showing off the picture instead of any clutter. This app might pave a new path in the way of Chrome OS customizability, since Google has said that Chrome OS isn’t disappearing any time soon, so other developers might hop on this app, derive a version of it, and perhaps allow a user to select an internal or Drive-based source of images, and let users select their own images to cycle through. For now, enjoy your arted-up desktop.