Google is testing a couple of noteworthy features for its ChomeOS Launcher. The company is also working on some interesting changes in Settings.
- Google is working on updates to the Launcher in ChromeOS, including a filter button for narrowing search results down to quickly find specific files, settings, app shortcuts, and more.
- Users can customize search results in the Launcher by enabling the “Enable launcher search control” flag.
- Google is also testing a new ChromeOS feature that allows users to control whether usernames and photos are shown on the sign-in screen.
From improving the Launcher experience to making tweaks in the settings and privacy, Google is working on a bunch of new features for the future updates of ChromeOS. Of all the changes recently spotted, updates to Launcher seem to be the most exciting ones.
As spotted by X (formerly Twitter) user @cr_c2cv, Google is testing a filter button on the right side of the Launcher search bar. The filter option is for allowing users to customize the search results. It’ll narrow down the search results to help you quickly find relevant files, settings, app shortcuts, and more. Think of it like how you can filter Google search results by date. When you select the date range, Google will filter out everything and show results only from that timeline. The last time Google introduced significant improvements to the search capability of the Launcher UI was when ChromeOS 100 was released, more than a year ago.
The ability to customize search results is available behind a developer flag. The flag you need to enable to bring the search control option to the search bar is “Enable launcher search control”. Although minor, there is another change in the works for the ChromeOS Launcher. Google was also spotted working on showing users apps that are currently being installed in the Launcher UI. We’ve already seen this in action in many Android phones and Windows 11.
There is one more Windows 11-inspired feature Google is working on for ChromeOS. The Mountain View tech giant is working on a toggle that will enable you to control whether your Chromebook devices will show usernames and photos on the sign-in screen. In Windows 11, however, you can stop your email address from appearing on the sign-in screen but not your photo and name.
Moreover, some minor changes are in development for ChromeOS Settings. For one, The Manage your apps and the Notification sections are no longer grouped into the same category. Additionally, The Manage Google Play Preferences page in Settings is now more explicit about the fact that removing Google Play will also remove Android apps.
Unfortunately, there is no timeline as to when these features will be available for the ChromeOS stable users. But after hearing about all these features, we’re more excited about what Google will introduce in its upcoming ChromeOS update.