Your first glimpse at the future ChromeOS welcome screen, which will have glanceable widgets providing useful, proactive information, akin to At A Glance on the Pixel series, is provided here.
We broke the news earlier this month that a new feature called glanceables would be added to ChromeOS and add widgets to your Chromebook’s desktop. The information we could piece together at the time indicated that the widgets will be available on the desktop and provide useful details like the current weather.
Since then, Google has expanded this space for widgets considerably, and the feature is now developed enough for us to have a better understanding of what to anticipate. To begin with, Google now refers to this function as a ChromeOS welcome screen. This is understandable considering that the widgets are mostly intended to show up when you first log into your Chromebook for the day.
You may also test out the ChromeOS welcome screen by using the new flag coming soon that is available only for Chromebooks on Canary. It’s important to note that Google calls it a Productivity Experiment, the same moniker that was first applied to the extensive makeover of ChromeOS’ launcher.
Reorient using the welcome screen in a productivity experiment.
Give users the tools and information they need to get started when they are about to begin a new task.
As soon as you login in to your Chromebook after the feature is truly activated on your device, the welcome screen will show up. The primary component is currently a straightforward “Welcome back” message, which is followed immediately by the current weather.
Two sections, Up next and Restore last session, are located a little farther down. The Up next section, which is akin to the At A Glance section on Pixel phones, displays upcoming events for today from your Google Calendar.
Google plans for the Restore last session box to include contain a complete screenshot of the Chromebook’s display at the time you last used it. All of your windows would reopen exactly how you left them if you clicked the screenshot.
The ChromeOS welcome screen vanishes the moment an app or window is opened. For the time being, Google has only placed an Up next button to the top-left of the Desks overview, as seen below. It appears that they are still working out the specifics of how and when the welcome page and accompanying widgets should resurface.
All things considered, it appears that the ChromeOS welcome screen widgets are still a few months away from being fully functional. What do you think of the brand-new feature in its nascent form? When the welcome screen is ready, would you use it and what else should it display? Tell us in the comments section.
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