If you’re a Chromebook user and you’re jealous of Windows 10 users that have all the Your Phone benefits, you might soon have reason to rejoice. While you are able to connect your Android device to your Chrome OS device with basic functionalities, an upcoming Phone Hub feature will give you even more things to do on both your phone and your laptop. This will include managing notifications and something referred to as “task continuation”, if the code changes spotted are to be believed.
Currently, your Android phone has some connection to your Chromebook of course. You can read and reply to text/RCS messages and you have access to automatic Wi-Fi hotspot and Smart Lock. This is part of Google’s Better Together program. But if you compare it to what the Your Phone app does for your smartphone and your Windows 10 computer, then it is sorely lacking in functionality.
9 to 5 Google spotted some code changes that seem to be hinting at a deeper integration between your Android and Chrome OS devices. They spotted something called Phone Hub and when you enable it, it says it will provide a UI where you can “view information” about your phone and “perform phone-side actions” on your Chrome OS. This means you will be able to have more features than what you can do now, which is basically view and respond to messages.
A code change also reveals three new settings: Phone Hub Notifications, Notifications Badge, and Task Continuation. There aren’t any details about this but obviously, this means you can view and manage phone notifications as pertains to the first two. The Task Continuation may mean you can continue working on something on your computer from your phone and vice versa. How that will happen is still unknown at this time.
This Phone Hub feature is probably still in the early stages of development so we don’t know yet all the details and mechanics. Let’s see how it will play out, especially in light of the Your Phone app by Microsoft.
