Google has maintained a very simple homescreen for its Chrome OS platform since the beginning, but slowly it’s been improved through small tweaks here or there. Now, in version 85, Chrome OS is preparing a tweaked app drawer that has smoother animations and, overall, is just a needed usability update. Here’s a quick look.
As first spotted by a Reddit user, there’s a small tweak to the app drawer in Chrome OS v85 which makes a big difference in terms of usability. Specifically, this change puts a “ghost” shadow behind an icon you’re moving. Thanks to that, moving icons around on the homescreen feels smoother and more accurate. Previously, it was really easy to accidentally drop an app into a folder instead of moving it to a new location.
For the time being, though, this change is only live behind a couple of flags. You’ll need to dive into the settings and enable “app-paging” and “grid-ghost.” The change, too, is only live on the Dev channel.
chrome://flags/#enable-launcher-app-paging
chrome://flags/#enable-app-grid-ghost
Hopefully, this is just the first of many improvements to Chrome OS’ homescreen. An alphabetical sort button would be great, as would an Android-style homescreen for tablet mode.
More on Chrome OS:
- Windows apps are coming to Chrome OS courtesy of Google partnership w/ Parallels
- Chrome OS Ambient Mode gains weather and clock widgets
- Google Play Store showcases ‘Premium’ Android games on Chromebooks
H/t ChromeUnboxed
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