Google Tests a New ‘Help’ App for Chromebooks

Google is testing a new “Help” app for Chromebooks. The new app is now available on the Canary version of Chrome OS. However, the app is far from ready.

We recently wrote about the upcoming Media app for Chrome OS. The new Help app that we spotted in the Canary version of Chrome OS also looks very similar. We, however, could not find the chrome:// URL for the new help app.

Before we look at the upcoming, work-in-progress app, here is how the current version of the app looks like:

Old Chromebook help app
Old Chromebook help app

Now, here is the new app:

New Chromebook help app
New Chromebook help app

The new app has three main sections:

  1. Overview
  2. Offers
  3. Help

The Overview section displays links to Chromebook help articles. The Offers tab is currently a placeholder page. The Help section is not working in the current version:

Help section
Help section

The design and content are clearly far from complete. We should see this app getting better in the coming weeks as the team puts in more work.

The new Help app and the Media app both seem to be part of Google’s effort to convert Chrome OS system apps into web apps. It might be a while before the real intent behind these changes come to light.

Do you have any theory on why Google might be doing this? Let us know in the comments section.


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