Wednesday 8 September 2021

Chrome OS 93 rolls out with improvements to the Tote feature

Hot on the heels of the Chrome 93 release for phones and PCs, Google has started rolling out Chrome OS 93 for Chromebooks. The latest version of Chrome OS brings improvements to Tote, stylus battery level, better handling of incompatible Android apps, redesigned keyboard language settings, and tons of smaller changes.

With Chrome OS 87, Google introduced Tote, a new feature built right into the Chromebook shelf that lets Chromebook users quickly access important files. In subsequent updates, Tote gained several new tricks like showing scanned files, saved PDFs, and the ability to pin important files for quick access. Now, it’s getting even better.

Starting with Chrome OS 93 (via Android Police), the shelf will now show three preview circles of recently taken screenshots and downloads without having to open Tote. You can hide these preview circles by right-clicking on them and selecting the hide previews option. Later this year, Google plans to add file download progress status in both the shelf preview and Tote.

Tote preview circles shown on Chromebook shelf

Another new change in the new update is the battery status for your stylus. When you open the stylus settings from the status bar, you’ll now be able to see the current battery level.

Stylus settings showing the battery level of a connected stylus pen

Image courtesy: Android Police

While Chrome OS has had native Android app support for years now, many apps still don’t work or behave well on the large screens simply because they were built for phones and tablets. To address this, Chrome OS 93 will now lock the app window to its native layout instead of opening apps in free-form, resizable windows. For apps that aren’t optimized for Chromebooks, users will see a new menu in the center of the app title bar, which, when clicked, reveals three layout options: Phone, Tablet, and Resizeable.

Gmail app on Chromebook showing new layout preset menu

Image courtesy: Android Police

Chrome OS 93 is also making the process of customizing keyboard input a lot easier by letting you customize it directly from the system preferences. On top of that, the update also adds a fresh Material Design look to the keyboard UI.

Apart from the changes noted above, there are several smaller improvements across the board. This includes the picture-in-picture window ditching sharp corners in favor of rounded ones, improved RAM management on devices running Android 10 and above, a new UI for spelling and grammar check settings, and so on.

Chrome OS 93 has started rolling out on the stable channel, and it should be available to download on your Chromebook or other Chrome OS-powered device soon. If you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network, your Chromebook will automatically download the update, and you’ll receive a notification when it’s ready to be installed.

The post Chrome OS 93 rolls out with improvements to the Tote feature appeared first on xda-developers.



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