Phone Hub is the most exciting thing that Chromebook users are looking forward to. Today’s update to the Chrome OS Canary channel has added the Phone Hub icon in the system tray.
Update: Video
The Phone Hub Icon
A phone icon is now displayed next to the date and time on the Chromebook desktop.
It doesn’t do anything yet.
It tries to open a notification-like panel. However, it is not functional yet. You can see a small rectangle in this screenshot:
Bloom
Bloom is “an experimental vertical knowledge search feature”. That’s all we know so far from a flag.
My assumption is that this will be a Google Assistant powered search feature that you can use from the desktop. That’s what it sounds like.
In today’s Canary channel update, there is a placeholder icon for Bloom as well. It looks like a globe, but I am not sure if this is the final icon.
This is another interesting feature to look forward to in upcoming Chrome OS releases.
One More Thing
Google is also experimenting with content modules on the new tab page. This is also an early work-in-progress project.
However, something tells me that we will see the upcoming Kaleidoscope project playing some role here.
Look at this code change request:
“Turn on the Kaleidoscope NTP module:
This is still gated by the NTP modules flag and the server-side KS gating but we can turn it on so people can test it easier.”
What’s the flag that I enabled to get the above NTP module?
We might get a “What to watch” and “Continue watching” widgets on the new tab page. This will be curated from all the streaming services that we have subscribed to.
Now, your turn. What’s excites you the most? Phone Hub? Bloom or NTP modules?
Let me know in the comments section below.
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