You will soon be able to stream and control your Android device from a Chromebook
Google is preparing a major update to the Android operating system that will bring significant changes to the way its users interact with Chromebooks. These changes will allow Android users to stream or control their smartphones from a larger screen, specifically that of ChromeOS devices.
This was first announced during last year's CES and since then, many fans of the Google ecosystem had wondered how this feature would work and what it would look like. Fortunately, this week we got a sneak peek, courtesy of Android expert Mishaal Rahman, who shared his findings on Twitter.
Google is finally rolling out the "app streaming" feature they first announced at CES 2022!
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) April 4, 2023
This feature uses new APIs in Android 13 to let you stream and control your Android apps from your Chromebook!
This won't be a Pixel-exclusive feature, either! https://t.co/GelNPxi8gjpic.twitter.com/VrD0t1Rn1N
According to the above tweet, Mishaal was able to enable the feature due to Google finally rolling out an update to the "Cross-Device Services" app, an app that has been present on Pixel phones for some time now, although inactive. Furthermore, it appears from his findings, that a Pixel phone will not be required for this to work as he was able to get this to work on different devices. The only true requirement known at this point is that the device needs to be running Android 13, but not every device running Android 13 will support it.
Once the app streaming feature goes live, Android users with a Chromebook will be able to control their phone from the ChromeOS device by running the apps already installed in a smaller window of the Chromebook screen. This can be particularly helpful and convenient when receiving notifications from your Android smartphone that you want to act on immediately —such as when responding to a meeting invite or quickly replying to a message— without having to switch devices.
This feature is part of Google's "Better Together" initiative, the company's version of having an interconnected ecosystem of devices that can all talk to and with each other, and perfectly compliments existing features such as "fast pair" and "nearby share."
It is unknown when the feature will be available to everyone as right now it's only working with the Canary version of ChromeOS and only on certain Android devices, but one can hope that the wait won't be that much longer, considering how long ago it was announced and how advanced it seems to be right now. As both an Android and Chromebook user, this is a feature I've been excited to try for some time now, so I'll be very happy once it reaches Stable status.
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