Your Chromebook will soon let you choose between PIN or password to log in. A code change request that we spotted today makes the required changes to the login screen messages.

Update on September 1st, 2020: The new login screen is now available in the Canary channel of Chrome OS. Here is how it looks like:

Using PIN or Password to Login

Using a PIN to log in is one of my favorite Chrome OS features. This is extremely useful when you have a long and complex Google account password.

If you use a Chrome OS tablet like the Pixel Slate or the recent Lenovo Duet, logging in using your Google account password in tablet mode won’t be easy. PIN login helps here as well.

Currently, you can set your Chromebook to use either password or PIN to login. You cannot change this from the login screen.

This is changing.

Switching Between PIN and Password

A code change request that we spotted talks about adding the option to switch between PIN and password from the login screen itself.

CrOS – Login Pin/Password Switch Button Strings: Add strings and screenshots for the upcoming switch button on the login/lock screen.

Further, you can see the messages to be used on the login screen when this feature is live:

Here is one more message change to incorporate the switching between PIN and password:

Removing the Submit Button

In a related change, Chromebooks will remove the submit button for PIN-based login.

“CrOS – Remove submit button from pinpad: Remove the submit button on the pin pad shown on the login/lock screen. Change LoginPinView construction to only show the submit button on the pinpad when the |on_submit| callback is valid.”

This change is most likely to use a common sign in button for both PIN-based and password-based login methods.

We do not know how this feature will look like on the login screen. It will be something to look for in future updates to the Chrome OS Canary channel.

Stay tuned to Chrome Story for more updates on this feature.

Source: Gerrit 1 and Gerrit 2.