Google’s New ‘Push’ Feature Could Bring App Handoffs Between Chromebooks and Android

Google has been working to offer higher integration between Android telephones and Chromebooks for years with options like its Phone Hub, however with its new “Push” characteristic, Google appears prefer it’s nearer to delivering a correct various to Apple’s Handoff characteristic for Macs and that iPhones.

After being observed within the first Android 12 preview again in February, as a part of its APK Insight collection, 9to5Google noticed a latest replace that sheds some new gentle on a promising upcoming characteristic headed to Google telephones and laptops.

According to 9to5Google, Push will probably be offered as a brand new button in Android 12 that can let you “Use your phone’s apps directly on [a Chromebook] when you’re at home,” so you possibly can extra simply change between units with out losing time determining the place you left off.

On Chrome OS units, the handoff from Android telephones will probably be dealt with by a brand new characteristic codenamed “Eche” that helps mirroring apps from Android telephones. Unfortunately, the inclusion of a string (com.google.pixel.exo) means that the brand new Push characteristic could also be unique to Google’s first-party Pixel telephones, not less than initially.

9to5Google discovered that there are at present two methods of pushing an app from a telephone to a Chromebook: opening the Recents menu in Android 12 and manually urgent the Push button, or clicking on one of many mirrored notifications that pop up inside Chrome OS, eliminating the necessity to contact your telephone in any respect.

However, as a substitute of working the brand new app natively in your Chromebook, it appears the best way Push works is by streaming a video feed out of your telephone to your Chromebook, which appears a bit unusual contemplating most Chromebooks already include the flexibility to run Android apps natively in Chrome OS.

That stated, if Google needed to save lots of the present state of the app in your telephone as a way to ship that knowledge to your Chromebook and reopen it there, 9to5Google says that course of would possibly require builders to doubtlessly make huge adjustments to the best way their apps are coded, which may make the characteristic way more tough to implement throughout the thousands and thousands of varied Android apps.

Currently, it’s not clear when Google’s new Push characteristic for Android telephones and Chromebooks will turn into formally out there. But with Google rumored to be prepping for an enormous product showcase for the Pixel 6 and different Google units someday this fall (most definitely in October if earlier occasions are any indication), there’s a superb likelihood Push will get launched someday earlier than the top of the 12 months.