It has been a few months since the Chrome OS Phone Hub came into the picture. And now in an APK Insight post, 9to5Google highlights that this new feature for sharing Android notifications is live via a Google Play services update.
Google has been working hard to build an ecosystem of its own. Lately, it has been stressing on how Pixelbooks and Pixel phones are better together. Users can make use of features like Smart Lock, Instant Tethering, and Google Messages integration.
And in order to compete with what Windows 10 has in ‘Your Phone’ app, Google has developed its own ‘Phone Hub’ feature. Basically, with the help of the Phone Hun feature, you can tweak your phone settings, reply to incoming notifications, etc.
Moreover, users will also be able to continue their web search and use Android apps from their phones onto their Chromebooks. This adds a lot of flexibility if someone has Chromebook and Pixel phone.
The Phone Hub features act as a sort of extension of your smartphone. You can continue with your work on your Chromebook’s big screen without the need to shuffle between your phone and PC.
And in the APK Insight post, we can see that Google would be bringing this feature soon. As multiple strings of texts in the latest beta update for Google Play Services have been spotted referring to Chrome OS’s Phone Hub.
Chrome OS Phone Hub was spotted in the Google Play Services beta v20.42.14
Today, a new update started rolling out for the Google Play Services through the Play Store’s beta program. It arrived with version number v20.42.14.
Notably, there were multiple strings of texts referring to the Chrome OS Phone Hub feature. Moreover, this would enable the users to view and reply to Android notifications from their Chromebooks.
Here are the strings:
<string name=”phone_hub_notification_opt_in_title”>Chromebook</string>
<string name=”phone_hub_notification_opt_in_text”>View your phone notifications on your Chromebook.</string>
<string name=”phone_hub_notification_connected_text”>Connected to your Chromebook</string>
<string name=”phone_hub_notification_connected_subtext”>Phone conversations will show on your Chromebook</string>
Besides, our friends at 9To5Google were able to enable this feature of connecting Pixel phone to Chromebook to share notifications. However, the process could not complete.
We speculate that it would take some more time for this feature to cook up for proper functioning. It is just the initial phase of this Chrome OS Phone Hub.
The point to note is that there is no function or feature like ‘Task Continuation’ or the ability to change the phone settings. On the Chrome OS side of things, the work of bringing seamless connection to Play Services, and the UI, is ongoing.
We are not sure as to when this feature will materialize. As features highlighted in the APK Insight posts may or may not make their way to the actual users. Google might remove the feature if things do not go the right way.