Last year, Google teased a new way for computers and Chromebooks to communicate with their Pixel phones. Thanks to 9To5Google, we got a glimpse of this new feature in action. It will allow the Pixel 6 to stream apps to your Chromebook or computer.
Your Pixel will be able to stream apps straight to your Chromebook
It’s a goal for most manufacturers to try and unite the smartphone experience and the computer experience. Why break away from your computer to interact with your phone when you can do so right on your computer? This is something that Apple, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft have been working towards.
Google introduced several different methods for Android phones to communicate with computer systems. According to 9To5Google, we’ve seen glimpses of Google’s newest method last year and during CES, 2022. They were able to enable some apps that will actually stream full Android apps from Pixel phones straight to a computer or Chromebook.
This means that you’ll be able to interact with the apps on your computer the same way you could on your phone. That sounds like an amazing concept, as a lot of solutions only allow us to control certain aspects of our phone.
Phone Hub could allow you to see your phone’s notifications on your Chromebook, and Messages for Web allows you to send text messages from your via a website.
This new method, however, will let you control full apps completely on your computer. 9To5Google provided videos that show a person viewing the entire Twitter app streamed from their Pixel. They were also able to actively send a tweet using this method as though the application were on the computer.
This feature isn’t screen mirroring
When you’re streaming an app to your computer, you won’t be sending a stream of the app as it is on your phone. Your phone will create a new window on your device that can be edited and resized as you seek fit. Not only that, but you can do this without affecting the apps that are open on your device.
This won’t be exclusive to Chromebooks
Google announced that this feature would only be on Chromebooks, but the folks at 9To5Google were able to get it up and running on a Windows 11 computer. This is very fortunate for people who own an Android device but don’t usually use Chromebooks.
There’s no telling exactly when this feature will come out, we expect it to become official when Android 13 launches. For now, it will only remain in the developer previews in betas.
2022-02-15 15:07:49