Note: Like many of my posts here, this is from the development channel of Chrome OS, and from commit logs from the Chromium OS bug tracking system. This may not work on your Chromebook yet, so don’t panic if you find something not working.

Chrome OS team just pushed an extension API from the experimental status. That means it has matured enough for prime use. The name of this new API is chrome.power API. With this API, Chrome Apps can control whether your Chrome Device can go to Sleep mode or not. The following are the features planned. These are not completely implemented even in the development channel of Chrome OS but will be there soon.

– the screen kept on,
– the system prevented from sleeping, (missing for now)
– default power-saving settings.

Keep Awake Extension for Chrome OS

The Keep Awake extension was created by Google using this API.

This extension makes it easy to temporarily disable power management on Chrome OS.

It adds an icon in the upper-right corner of the browser that can be clicked to switch between modes where the screen is kept on, the system is prevented from sleeping, or power-saving settings are left unchanged.

That sounds like just a simple extension to me. However, when some of the existing extensions make use of this feature, we will find it more useful. Like a book reading app or a video streaming service, keeping your device awake while you read a book or watch a movie.

If you are on the development channel of Chrome OS, you can install the extension from here.

Thanks François Beaufort.