• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Chromebook
  • Chrome
  • Chromecast
  • Assistant

Chrome Story

Chromebooks Made Simple

  • About
  • Privacy
  • YouTube
Home / Chromebook / How to Enable Screensaver on Chromebook

How to Enable Screensaver on Chromebook

April 2, 2020 by Dinsan Francis | Updated: August 19, 2020 2 Comments

Contents

  • 1 What is Ambient Mode (Screen Saver)
  • 2 Enable Screensaver
  • 3 Customize Screensaver
  • 4 Change Weather Unit (Celsius or Fahrenheit) on Lock Screen
  • 5 Conclusion

Update: Chrome OS has renamed Ambient Mode into Screen Saver.

Chromebooks are getting a new Ambient Mode similar to Chromecast and Pixel phones. This feature is currently under development and is available only on the Canary channel of Chrome OS. However, following our custom of telling you about Chrome OS features before they are released, here is our guide to Ambient Mode.

Screen Saver on Chromebook

What is Ambient Mode (Screen Saver)

On a Chromecast-connected TV, Ambient Mode displays a personalized collection of photos. You can choose between different sources, including your own Google Photos albums.

Google Assistant also has an Ambient Mode which shows useful information on the lock screen along with pictures. We are more likely to get this type of Ambient Mode on Chromebooks.

Enable Screensaver

To enable Ambient mode, you need to first enable the experimental flag:

  1. Open chrome://flags in a new tab.
  2. Enable the flag “Enable Ambient Mode”.
  3. Restart your Chromebook.

Ambient Mode is enabled by default. You can verify this and also customize this:

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Click Personalization from the left pane.
  3. Click “Ambient Mode”

Customize Screensaver

Things are still work-in-progress. However, you can currently choose between Art Gallery and Google Photos for your Chromebook’s Ambient Mode.

To do this, go to Settings > Personalization > Ambient Mode and Select Google Photos or Art Gallery.

Change Weather Unit (Celsius or Fahrenheit) on Lock Screen

To change the weather unit used by Chromebook Ambient Mode:

  1. Go to Settings > Personalization.
  2. Choose Screen saver.
  3. Under Weather, choose Celsius or Fahrenheit.
Weather settings for Ambient Mode

The next time you see your Chromebook in Ambient Mode, you will see weather in the selected unit.

Conclusion

As we noted in the beginning, this feature is still work-in-progress. We will update this article with the latest instructions and details as this feature progresses and adds more options.

Stay tuned. Drop your questions in the comments section so that we can discuss.

Filed Under: Chromebook

About Dinsan Francis

Content Strategist and Digital Minimalist. Loves testing new Chromebook features and writing about them. Favorite Chrome OS Channel is Canary. | Twitter

Fresh Stories

  • Chrome to Let You Use Saved Passwords Across ‘Affiliated’ Websites
  • Google to Rename ‘Native’ Notifications to ‘System’ Notifications
  • Chrome Adds Live Caption Toggle to Media Controls

Free Updates in Email

Want our next story or guide in your email for free? Enter your email address and click Subscribe.

Join 3,950 other subscribers

New Here?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marilyn says

    December 16, 2020 at 9:23 pm

    What do you do with a school Chromebook

    Reply
  2. David Garrison says

    February 14, 2021 at 3:57 am

    Screen saver will not work if you go into power settings and select keep display on when idle, it wont go into idle.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

Stay in Touch

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Google
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

WordPress | Copyright © 2021 Chrome Story | Chrome is a registered trademark of Google Inc.