ChromeOS Release Notes

Minimize your distractions and create a more productive workspace. With Focus, you can effortlessly set and adjust your focus time, enable or disable Do-not-Disturb (DND) mode, sort through or create new Google Tasks, and immerse yourself in curated playlists that help you focus better with focus sound or YouTube Music Premium (subscription-based).

To use Focus, go to Quick Settings > Focus.

Resume your work even faster at start-up. Once you enable this feature, you will be able to preview and restore apps and tabs from your previous session. Welcome Recap also provides helpful information like weather, your next calendar event, recent tabs from other devices and relevant Google Drive suggestions.

To turn on this feature, select Settings > System Preferences > Startup > Welcome Recap, and select Ask every time.

Enjoy greater flexibility with Picture-in-Picture (PiP) windows. PiP Tuck lets you temporarily move PiP windows to the side of your screen, freeing up valuable screen space while keeping your video easily accessible. Additionally, you can quickly adjust the size of PiP windows with a quick double-tap, toggling between two sizes for optimal viewing.

Quickly find the information you need in any text with this AI-powered solution. Easily get to the heart of what you’re reading in the browser and in Gallery by right-clicking on an empty space to reveal the Help me read card above the existing contextual menu. The Help me read panel showcases a summary of the text and a freeform Q&A field where you can ask specific questions about the text.

Quickly insert emojis, symbols, GIFs, Google Drive links, and quick calculations and unit conversions with a keyboard key (on select models) or a keyboard shortcut.

In ChromeOS 130, a new shortcut Launcher + f is available on all ChromeOS devices. A new hardware key is initially available on the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus ⁠only, but the Quick Insert key will launch on a range of devices in 2025.

In addition to files you’ve starred within Tote, access all your starred Drive files directly from the shelf, which is now available to you offline. Enhanced Drive suggestions in Launcher and Tote allow you shortcut access to your most important and frequently used files.

Quickly access and pin the files you need the most with local and Drive file suggestions. The new Suggestions section in Tote suggests files to users, up-leveling files that will be useful for them to pin and access offline.

We are launching Multi-calendar support to allow users to view all events from multiple calendars that they have selected within their Google Calendar.

Make your Chromebook's built-in microphone sound like a professional studio microphone by activating this feature in the video call controls. Studio-style mic includes the existing noise cancellation and de-reverberation effects, and further enhances them with advanced balancing, reconstruction of fine details, and room adaptation. Users who have enabled noise cancellation will get the Studio-style mic enhancements by default starting with this release. If a user wants to revert to the old noise cancellation-only effect, they can select the appropriate option in Settings > Device > Audio. This feature is only available on Chromebook Plus devices⁠.

ChromeOS 130 introduces the new Google AI-powered Recorder app to create transcriptions that can detect and label speakers, and provide a summary of recorded content. Our app goes beyond recording, offering speech-to-text, content summarization, and title suggestions, all powered by Google AI.

We are now enabling organizations to extend Chrome Enterprise Premium⁠’s powerful scanning and content and context-based protection to local files in Managed Guest Sessions on ChromeOS. For example, a misplaced file containing Social Security numbers is instantly blocked when a user attempts to copy it to an external drive, safeguarding this confidential information.

If a Kiosk app uses more than one URL origin, IT Admins can now enter the additional origins. All specified origins will get permissions automatically granted. Permissions will be rejected for any other origins not included in this list.

Appearance effects have been popular among the products of cameras, virtual meetings, and short videos for a long time and launched on some Google products. In ChromeOS 130, we integrate this feature into Chromebook for video call controls. Available on Chromebook Plus devices⁠ only.

In this launch, we are making OS-level privacy controls more available to users of Chrome browser. This aims to make users more aware that to make the camera or microphone work, they need to enable OS-level privacy controls.

Chromebook users can now easily adjust keyboard brightness and control the ambient light sensor directly from the Settings app. This new feature lets you set your keyboard brightness to the perfect level and turn the ambient light sensor on or off as needed. These updates make it simpler to use your device and help manage battery life. Meanwhile, if the Chromebook supports RGB, the Settings > Keyboard option now has a direct link to RGB color selection options. For more details, see Using gaming features on your Chromebook⁠.

Chromebook users can now easily adjust display brightness and control the ambient light sensor directly from the Settings app. This new feature lets you set your screen brightness to the perfect level and turn the ambient light sensor on or off as needed in Settings. These updates make it simpler to use your device and help manage battery life.

To improve ChromeOS and ARC++ user experience, we're moving ARC++ non-urgent background and error notifications to the system tray. This prevents these messages from unnecessarily popping up in the foreground and disrupting the user's journey. By moving these notifications to the system tray, we can ensure that users are still notified of potential issues but are not interrupted while using their Chromebook. For more information about ARC++, see this ChromeOS developer blog.

For Chromebooks with cellular capability, Access Point Name (APN) policies allow administrators to restrict usage of custom APNs. By setting the AllowAPNModification flag in general network settings to restrict, they can prevent end users from adding or using any custom APNs.

Translate captionable content from Live Captions into a language of your choice on Chromebook Plus devices⁠. With Live Translate, you can translate captions into another language as long as your conversation supports Live Captions. Live Translate will work with conference calls, videos, and YouTube.

Connect, configure, and find companion apps for your peripherals. Peripheral Welcome delivers a high-quality Welcome Experience by letting you know that your peripheral is successfully connected and inviting you to configure and make the most out of it.

Turn on Select-to-Speak with the Select-to-Speak keyboard shortcut (Search + s). You no longer need to enable it in Settings first. A dialog displays confirming that you want to turn on select to speak the first time you press the keyboard shortcut.

Easily adjust keyboard brightness and control the ambient light sensor directly from the Settings app on your Chromebook. This new feature lets you set your keyboard brightness to the perfect level and turn the ambient light sensor on or off as needed.

Easily adjust your Chromebook’s display brightness and control the ambient light sensor directly from the Settings app. This new feature lets you set your screen brightness to the perfect level and turn the ambient light sensor on or off as needed in the Settings app.

You can now pin and unpin icons to your toolbar via a new side panel, for fast access. This feature will roll out gradually, starting with Chrome 129.

Save your passkeys to Google Password Manager and use them across devices and platforms. Until ChromeOS 129, passkeys have been slightly more difficult to use across all devices—making it harder to use passkeys to improve user security.

An update to the battery icon ensures that the battery state no longer covers the battery level. Now you can easily see how much battery you have left.

This launch enables PIN as an authentication factor in all authentication surfaces across ChromeOS.

In ChromeOS 129, we have added a new wallpaper collection to celebrate and share our gratitude and support to educators around the world.

Organizations can extend Chrome Enterprise Premium⁠’s powerful scanning and content and context-based protection to local files on ChromeOS on Managed Guest Sessions. For example, a misplaced file containing Social Security numbers is instantly blocked when a user attempts to copy it to an external drive, safeguarding this confidential information.

Screenshot protections allow Admins to prevent users from taking screenshots or screen sharing specific web pages considered to contain sensitive data. This feature is available to Chrome Enterprise Premium⁠ users only. This feature can be controlled via the same EnterpriseRealTimeUrlCheckMode⁠ Chrome Enterprise policy that enables all real-time URL lookups.

Starting from ChromeOS version 129, we enhance the data security for Android on ChromeOS. Enterprise accounts that are added as secondary accounts in-session will no longer automatically be added to the Android on ChromeOS environment. This change does not affect consumer accounts, education accounts, or accounts that were previously added.

Starting from version 129, ChromeOS optimizes the support of 3P identity provider based logins. In the most common scenario, administrators show a permanent 3P identity provider login on the sign in screen. Many identity providers time out after a specific cadence, for example, 15 mins, leading to errors for the user. The new DeviceAuthenticationFlowAutoReloadInterval⁠ policy allows for a repeated refresh of 3P identity providers on the login screen, avoids timeouts, and therefore significantly increases the reliability of 3P identity provider logins.

Client side encryption (CSE) is a Google Workspace and Drive feature that allows customers and users to encrypt files with customer provided keys so that data is encrypted and never stored on our servers in the clear. This launch provides basic CSE support in the Files app on ChromeOS. This includes making CSE files visible, opening CSE files in the browser and flagging non Google Workspace CSE files as unsupported.

Isolated Web Apps (IWAs) provide a high-trusted security model for web applications, built on the foundations of web app installation and Web Packaging. They provide stronger protections against server compromise and other tampering than normal web apps, necessary for developers of security-sensitive applications.

Rather than being hosted on live web servers and fetched over HTTPS, IWAs are packaged into Web Bundles signed by their developer, which are then distributed to end-users.

In this initial release, IWAs are only installable using a new policy, IsolatedWebAppInstallForceList⁠, on enterprise-managed ChromeOS devices.

Group windows on one screen with Snap groups. When you pair two windows for split-screen display, ChromeOS now forms a Snap group. As a Snap group, you can bring the windows back into focus together, resize them simultaneously, and move them both as a group.

Manage the privacy of your geolocation access by going to the Settings > Privacy and security > Privacy controls page. You can now set geolocation access to Allowed, Only allowed for system services, or Off, depending on preference.

You can now block all apps or websites, or entire systems, regardless of previously granted permissions.

To use cameras and microphones on ChromeOS, you need to turn on both privacy controls and app permissions in two separate places. We now provide actionable reminders on the ChromeOS Apps settings page so you can have a smoother experience. View the ChromeOS Apps settings page by going to Settings > Apps > Manage your Apps and selecting the desired app.

Copy and search text from images, speak text from images by screen reader, and create searchable PDFs from images—now within the ChromeOS Camera App. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) enables text extraction from images captured in the ChromeOS Camera App by integrating an ML-powered text extraction service. ChromeOS 128 supports 77 languages; it also supports horizontal and vertical detection.

ChromeOS notifications help to visually separate pinned notifications from other notifications. ChromeOS 128 significantly differentiates the visual look of pinned notifications from typical notifications to reflect their significant difference—we notify the user of an ongoing process rather than an instantaneous event.

Auto Gain Control (AGC) allows apps, such as video calling apps, to automatically optimize microphone volume for best audio quality. When auto gain control is enabled and in-use, a message appears in the quick settings panel to inform the user that the microphone gain slider is being overridden. AGC is enabled by default in ChromeOS 128. If you want to manually control the microphone volume even for apps that support AGC, you can go to Settings > Device > Audio and deselect Allow apps to automatically adjust mic volume.

For ChromeOS cellular-enabled devices, we have made it easier to view, manage, and add Access Point Names (APNs). We’ve also improved registration failure handling and messaging.

Site search shortcuts are a way to use the address bar (Omnibox) as a search box for a specific site without navigating directly to the site’s URL, similar to how you can use the Omnibox to perform a broad Google search of the web. You can now create site shortcuts on behalf of your managed users, to shortcut to the most critical enterprise sites. You can control this feature using the SiteSearchSettings⁠ policy.

New data processor mode features and ChromeOS terms are available to the entire EU through the Google Admin console. As a ChromeOS administrator, you can now activate Data processor mode, which covers a set of ChromeOS features and services called Essential Services.

From ChromeOS 128 onwards, we store aggregated vitals data for one-year retention to better track the progress over time. Vitals data includes Android app performance metrics, such as crash rate. These metrics will help us improve Android app performance on ChromeOS devices.

Migrate your Chrome extensions to Manifest V3 before June 2025. Manifest V3 brings improved privacy for users—for example, by moving to a model where extensions modify requests declaratively, without the ability to see individual requests. Manifest V3 further improves extension security, by disallowing remotely hosted code. Chrome will begin to gradually disable Manifest V2 extensions starting in June 2024, with Chrome 127’s pre-stable release.

Use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and AI to read PDFs directly from the Gallery app. ChromeOS now launches a PDF OCR AI reader on Gallery, enabling reading for inaccessible documents and further filling the gap in accessibility for low vision and blind users that use a screen reader. ChromeOS leverages its machine learning models to extract, compartmentalize, and section PDF documents to make them more accessible on the Gallery app for ChromeVox users.

Hear the text you’re reading with the new Read Aloud feature in Reading Mode. Read Aloud brings Google's high quality voices to Chrome Reading Mode, letting users leverage Text to Speech to read content on the web. The goal of Read Aloud is to help people who have difficulty reading long-form text—hearing the text that is being read can improve focus and comprehension.

Students can now quickly view and access their upcoming Classroom assignments with one click from their Chromebook home screen. Users can see this new feature if they are logged into a Chromebook with an account where they are enrolled in active courses in Google Classroom. Users can find this feature by clicking on the date chip on the shelf of their Chromebook if they are logged into an account, where they will see the new panel which can view lists of their upcoming, due, missing and completed assignments.

Chrome profiles offer a user-friendly way to keep personal and work browsing data separate, simplifying the experience, preventing data breaches, and ensuring privacy and compliance. We have created three policies to help you control profile separation in your organization: ProfileSeparationSettings⁠, ProfileSeparationDataMigrationSettings⁠ and ProfileSeparationDomainExceptionList⁠. These policies replace ManagedAccountsSigninRestriction⁠ and EnterpriseProfileCreationKeepBrowsingData⁠.

Get AI-generated insights for Chrome DevTools Console warnings and errors⁠. In Chrome 127, this Generative AI (GenAI) feature becomes available for managed Chrome Enterprise and Education users in supported regions. These insights provide a personalized description and suggested fixes for the selected errors and warnings. Admins can control this feature using the DevToolsGenAiSettings⁠ policy.

Answer, reject, or terminate calls on compatible Bluetooth headsets. ChromeOS now supports hardware call control buttons on select headsets, including muting the microphone.

Delete or reorder pages within a PDF via mouse or keyboard shortcuts, directly from the Gallery app.

Starting in Chrome 127, as part of Chrome's move towards HTTPS by default⁠, HTTPS-First Mode is enabled by default in Incognito mode. Users will see a warning before they navigate to sites over insecure HTTP. This can be controlled using the existing enterprise policies HttpsOnlyMode⁠ and HttpAllowlist⁠.

ChromeOS 127 introduces a visual enhancement for Downloadable Content (DLC) in the video control panel. This release now adds status indicators for Noise Cancellation, Live Captions, Relighting, and Blur.

Chrome browser now launches an optical character recognition (OCR) AI reader for PDFs, creating a built-in PDF screen reader for inaccessible documents, further filling the gap in accessibility for low vision and blind users across the web.

This feature leverages Google's OCR models to extract, compartmentalize, and section PDF documents to make them more accessible. A local machine intelligence library is installed that uses Screen AI technology to analyze screenshots and the accessibility tree—extracting more information to help assistive technology, such as texts and the main content of the page.

ChromeOS provides 10 years of OS updates for security, stability, and performance improvements. Most devices will receive these updates automatically. For a subset of older devices, users and administrators can now opt in to extended updates to get a full 10 years of support.

ChromeOS 126 expands support for live captions from 1 to 6 languages and dictation from 1 to 18 locales. Further, Chrome now uses a new voice recognition model that provides additional battery savings.

Live captions on ChromeOS can be used on videos played with the Gallery player app, in YouTube, in Google Meet, in Zoom, or social media sites. To see or change your current live captions language, select Settings > Audio and captions > Live Caption > Manage languages. For more information on live captions, read the Help Center⁠ article.

Dictation is available on Google Docs, or in any other text input by enabling dictation in the taskbar, clicking the Mic button, and speaking. To see or change your dictation language, select Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard and text input > Dictation > Language. For more information on dictation, see this Help Center⁠ article.

The built-in Camera app now supports zooming on cameras that do not have optical zoom motors, including the built-in camera. On selected high-performance Chromebooks, AI-based Super Resolution may be applied to further enhance the images.

When you read text aloud using Select to Speak, the screen magnifier can now automatically follow the words, so you never lose your place. Magnifier following select-to-speak is a feature designed for people who have low vision, but may be beneficial for anyone who enjoys reading text at larger sizes.

To try this out, first enable both Magnifier and Select to Speak in your settings. Under Docked Magnifier toggle Magnifier follows the word being read by select-to-speak.

Then, adjust zoom to your preferred level using Ctrl + Alt + Brightness up and Ctrl + Alt + Brightness down. Finally, select the text you want to read out and press the select-to-speak play button, or Search + S, and Magnifier will follow words as they are spoken.

A new setting is available to turn on and off the swipe gesture to navigate between pages. This feature is also known as overscroll or overscrolling pages.

This setting is found under Settings > Accessibility > Cursor and touchpad > Use a swipe gesture to navigate between pages.

A new setting is available to turn off the blinking text cursor under Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard and text input > Text cursor blink rate. Customers with photosensitive seizure triggers and cognitive differences may want to turn off the blinking text cursor.

You can now set up a new Chromebook using your Android phone. By establishing a secure connection between your phone and the Chromebook, you can automatically transfer your Wi-Fi and Google Account login information without needing to manually enter your passwords. This is available for unmanaged users only.

ChromeOS 126 renames the Instant Tethering feature to Instant Hotspot.

ChromeOS 126 supports firmware updates on a variety of additional peripherals. This significantly reduces the overhead and time needed to make new firmware updates available.

Chrome Remote Desktop (CRD) is a feature that allows for remote control of ChromeOS devices, primarily for troubleshooting purposes, where a device is idle and unused. Admins can now initiate a CRD connection to a ChromeOS device sitting on the login screen. This enables an admin to sign-in to a managed device with their own set of credentials for troubleshooting or testing.

For supervised accounts managed via Family Link, we are separating the parental control for Permissions for sites, extensions, and apps to give parents more granular control. Parents now have two options to choose from: Permissions for apps and Extensions. The impact on supervised accounts is that a parent can now allow extensions installations with or without approval. Previously, parents could block extensions but had no way to allow them without approval.

The Chrome Enterprise team introduces new interactive setup guides for browser management in the Admin console, where administrators can choose a journey they’re interested in and get hands-on training in related Chrome setup guides.

View events from multiple calendars at once. With ChromeOS 126, we launch multi-calendar support to let you view all events from multiple calendars that you select within the Google Calendar widget.

ChromeOS 126 introduces a new kiosk device policy that allows Admins to schedule when a device will wake and sleep. For more details, see Kiosk settings⁠.

Memory Saver is a feature that deactivates unused tabs to free up memory on a user's device. There is an existing policy, HighEfficiencyModeEnabled⁠, which allows administrators to control the Memory Saver feature. A new policy called MemorySaverModeSavings⁠ allows you to configure how aggressive the Memory Saver is when deciding to deactivate tabs. Choose the conservative option to deactivate fewer tabs or the aggressive one to get the most memory savings.

This feature enables prefetching of subresources during a navigation, to speed up navigations and load new pages faster. The subresources prefetched are predicted by a Google-owned service. The browser shares the URL of pages being navigated to with this service, to retrieve predictions. You can control this feature using the UrlKeyedAnonymizedDataCollectionEnabled⁠ policy.

In Chrome 125, a new Generative AI (GenAI) feature becomes available for unmanaged users: Generating insights for Chrome DevTools Console warnings and errors⁠. These insights provide a personalized description and suggested fixes for the selected errors and warnings.

ChromeOS 125 introduces the ability to install your PWA from anywhere with our Add to Chromebook badge and a ChromeOS App URL. This also introduces our new classic desktop-like install wizard for PWAs. It’ll display your PWA’s name, description, icons, and screenshots if you’ve got your Web App Manifest set up for the richer install UI⁠.

ChromeOS 125 expands support for live captions from 1 to 6 languages and dictation from 1 to 18 locales. We now use a new voice recognition model that provides additional battery savings.

• Live captioning. Live captions on ChromeOS can be used on videos played with the Gallery player app, in YouTube, in Google Meet, in Zoom, or social media sites. To see or change your current live captions language, select Settings > Audio and captions > Live Caption > Manage languages. For more information on live captions, see this Help Center⁠ article.

Dictation. Dictation is available on Google Docs, or in any other text input by enabling dictation in the taskbar, clicking the Mic button, and speaking. To see or change your dictation language, select Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard and text input > Dictation > Language. For more information on dictation, see this Help Center⁠ article.

ChromeOS now supports call control buttons on compatible Bluetooth headsets, including answering, rejecting or terminating a call, and muting the microphone.

A reduced animation setting is now available on ChromeOS under Accessibility > Display and Magnification > Reduced Animations. If you experience motion sickness, distractions or other types of discomfort when viewing animations, you can benefit from enabling this setting.

The Extensions Safety Check notifies users about extensions that might contain malware, policy violations, and extensions that have been unpublished long ago. It provides an interface for users to review these extensions and decide to keep or remove each flagged extension.

To expand the usefulness and the scope of this feature, Chrome 125 adds new triggers so that other potentially risky extensions can also be reviewed by users. There are two new extension types that we now flag for the user to review. 

• Extensions that are not installed from the Chrome Web Store
• Extensions that violate store policy by using deceptive installation tactics and are considered unwanted software

Extensions that are force-installed, installed by policy, version-pinned or blocked by policy are ignored and not flagged by these trigger criteria.

In ChromeOS 125 and later, Chromeboxes and Chromebases display a notification to prevent unintended Bluetooth device disconnections. This notification appears when you attempt to disable Bluetooth while only Human Interface Devices (HIDs) like keyboards or mice connected via Bluetooth are active.

ChromeOS Gallery video player now has a playback speed menu to control the playback speed.

To better support Enterprise customers who use SAML authentication and VPN in always-on strict mode (where no user traffic can get to the internet except via the VPN), we've added a new policy AlwaysOnVpnPreConnectUrlAllowlist⁠.

You can now view and manage Wi-Fi Passpoint in ChromeOS Settings. Under the Passpoint detailed page, view and remove an installed Passpoint subscription.

A network identifier was added to the secure DNS URI templates with identifiers policy. Admins can now configure a new placeholder in the DNS URI templates, which is replaced with the device local IP addresses when the users are connected to managed networks.

The Client Safe Browsing Report is a telemetry report sent to Safe Browsing when a warning is shown in Chrome. Today, download reports are sent when users discard or bypass a download warning. Based on the learnings from the initial tailored warning experiment, many download warnings are not explicitly discarded or bypassed. Reports are not sent for these warnings, so Safe Browsing doesn't have visibility on the effectiveness of these warnings. This feature aims to close this telemetry gap by sending reports when the download is auto-discarded or the browser is closed.

In Chrome 114, we introduced NewBaseUrlInheritanceBehaviorAllowed⁠ to prevent users or Google Chrome variations from enabling NewBaseUrlInheritanceBehavior, in case compatibility issues were discovered. Chrome 125 removes the temporary NewBaseUrlInheritanceBehaviorAllowed policy.

ChromeOS 125 allows easier captive portal sign-in with a dedicated window. The window opens as a tabless popup window. The URL is shown but it is not editable.

There are several new policies available in Admin console:

• DevToolsGenAiSettings⁠. These features in Google Chrome's DevTools employ generative AI models to provide additional debugging information. To use these features, Google Chrome has to collect data such as error messages, stack traces, code snippets, and network requests and send them to a server owned by Google, which runs a generative AI model. Response body or authentication and cookie headers in network requests are not included in the data sent to the server.
• ContextualGoogleIntegrationsEnabled⁠. Improve productivity by allowing information from Google apps and services to appear on Google ChromeOS system surfaces. If this policy is Enabled or left unset, the integrations selected in ContextualGoogleIntegrationsConfiguration are enabled. If this policy is Disabled, all integrations are disabled.
• ContextualGoogleIntegrationsConfiguration⁠. Select which services are included when ContextualGoogleIntegrationsEnabled is Enabled. When ContextualGoogleIntegrationsEnabled is Disabled, all services will be disabled, regardless of the settings of this policy. When ContextualGoogleIntegrationsEnabled is Enabled or not set, services can be selected by this policy.
• DeviceExtensionsSystemLogEnabled⁠. Enterprise extensions can add logs via the chrome.systemLog API to a system log file. Setting the policy to Enabled will allow the logs to be persisted in the system log file for a limited amount of time. Setting the policy to Disabled or leaving it unset does not allow the logs to be added to the system log file which means that logs will not be persisted between sessions.
• DeviceDlcPredownloadList⁠. This policy lets an administrator set a list of DLCs (Downloadable Content) to be downloaded as soon as possible. Downloaded DLCs are available to all users on the device.

Experience smoother video play with less buffering. ChromeOS 124 now includes a new Quality of Service (QoS) feature that ensures better traffic prioritization of video conferencing and gaming applications on congested Wi-Fi networks.

Adjust your cursor size by going into Settings > Accessibility > Cursor and touchpad and sliding the slider to your preferred size. Larger mouse pointers are helpful for those with low vision, those who are presenting their screen, or those who just prefer to customize their ChromeOS experience.

To optimize the size of ChromeOS updates, we now download scanner drivers only once a scanner is connected.The driver downloads automatically without any prompt that the user needs to answer. A notification appears to indicate that external drivers are being installed and when installation is complete.

Choose your search engine. As part of our Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance, Google is introducing choice screens for users to choose their default search engine within Chrome. The choice from the prompt controls the default search engine setting, currently available at chrome://settings/search.

Fast Pair is now available for mice on ChromeOS. Bring a Fast Pair-compatible mouse close to your ChromeOS device, and you’ll be prompted to pair it with a single click.

Deprecation of WebSQL is complete. The policy WebSQLAccess⁠ and the deprecation trial, which allows for WebSQL to be available, is no longer available.SQLite⁠ over WASM⁠ is the official replacement for WebSQL.

In Chrome 114, we introduced InsecureHashesInTLSHandshakesEnabled⁠ to control the use of legacy insecure hashes during the TLS handshake process. In Chrome 116, we introduced RSAKeyUsageForLocalAnchorsEnabled to control some server certificate checks. Chrome 124 removes both InsecureHashesInTLSHandshakesEnabled and RSAKeyUsageForLocalAnchorsEnabled policies.

Chrome Apps now enables WebHID features in Chrome App Webview, for VDI and Zoom HID support.

From ChromeOS 124, the ExtensionInstallForcelist⁠ policy supports the rollback of extensions for managed guest sessions and the login screen. This gives admins the option to rollback extensions in case of an erroneous rollout of a new version.

ChromeOS 124 introduces a UI for admins to initiate an instant reboot action for Managed Guest Sessions.

ChromeOS now supports carrier lock for mobile providers that want to provide subsidized devices to users. On all cellular enabled devices, carriers can lock the device to only allow connection to approved SIM profiles (both eSIM and physical SIM). Locked devices get enrolled to a carrier lock server and when the contract ends, the carrier simply releases the lock and the user is notified on their device. Note that in addition to being blocked for using unauthorized SIM profiles, dev mode is blocked on carrier locked devices.

There are several new policies available in Admin console:

• AutomaticFullscreenAllowedForUrls. Permits browser dialogs to appear without exiting fullscreen.
• AutomaticFullscreenBlockedForUrls. Disallows browser dialogs from appearing without exiting fullscreen.
• MutationEventsEnabled. Enables or disables deprecated mutation events.
• PrefixedVideoFullscreenApiAvailability. Controls and overrides the PrefixedVideoFullscreen RuntimeEnabled feature, determining whether webkit-prefixed video-specific fullscreen APIs are available.

Assign preferred key combinations to personalize your shortcuts in ChromeOS. Whether you want to improve one-handed accessibility, make them easier to remember, or bring over shortcuts you’re used to in other systems, custom keyboard shortcuts can simplify your day-to-day workflows.

You can build a new shortcut through Settings > Device > Keyboard and inputs > View keyboard shortcuts > Overview mode > Edit > Add Shortcut.

If your mouse has more than two buttons, you can now assign them to a set of actions—such as taking a screenshot, muting and unmuting, or inserting emojis. You can also select a key combination to assign to your buttons for any action performed by a keyboard shortcut.

Access these settings through Settings > Device > Mouse > Customize mouse buttons.

Faster Split Screen setup offers a quicker way to set up your window layout by showing an overview of your open windows on the other side of the screen. With Faster Split Screen, once you snap (or lock) a window in place on one side, you can choose an already-open window from Overview to snap into the other side—or select something from the shelf (the row of apps located at the bottom or side of your screen).

From ChromeOS 123, ChromeOS Flex will upgrade to the Floss Bluetooth stack. As part of this upgrade, the listed devices no longer support Bluetooth functionality. If Bluetooth functionality is critical for these devices, we recommend moving these devices to the LTS channel⁠⁠ to extend the Bluetooth functionality through to October 2024.

• HP Probook 4530s
• Lenovo ThinkPad T420
• HP Elitebook 8460p
• Apple iMac 11,2
• Lenovo ThinkPad x220
• Dell Vostro 3550
• HP 3115m
• HP Elitebook 2560p
• HP ProBook 6465b
• Lenovo ThinkPad L420

If your devices are unable to connect to Bluetooth after updating to ChromeOS 123, go to chrome://flags and set the flag Use Floss instead of BlueZ to Disabled.

With per-app permissions for microphone and camera, you can go directly to privacy settings to view which apps need access and modify your app permissions—rather than going to two separate places. ChromeOS 123 consolidates app permissions and privacy controls, giving users more transparency by showing which apps need access to privacy sensors and how app permissions are affected by privacy control states.

Change to your preferred language for individual Android apps. These new settings are available in Settings > Apps > Manage your apps > App language.

In ChromeOS 123, we’ve added new natural sounding TTS voices that work offline and are available in 31 languages. Find them under Accessibility settings.

You can now share your cellular network on your Chromebook as a hotspot to other devices without an internet connection. As of ChromeOS 123, this feature only supports T-Mobile in the US. Enable a hotspot by opening Network Settings and toggling on Hotspot.

In August 2023, data processor mode for ChromeOS was launched in the Netherlands to give organizations more transparency and control over data sent to and processed by Google. We have now extended this mode to Norway and Belgium. Data Processor mode is available in the Admin console through Device > Chrome > Compliance. For more information, see our Help Center article⁠.

On new enterprise domains, ChromeOS now deactivates Android apps for unaffiliated ChromeOS users by default. Unaffiliated ChromeOS users are users on unmanaged devices or on devices that are managed by a different domain than the user. Enterprise customers who want to change the default setting, see our Help Center article⁠⁠.

Create and share transcribed screen recordings. You can now trim your screencasts sentence-by-sentence, add and remove paragraph breaks, mute segments of your recordings, and title sections to make long recordings easier to navigate.

ChromeOS media player now has bigger buttons—and colors to match your wallpaper. Play video or audio to reveal the media player under Quick Settings and click the Pin icon to move the media player to the shelf. ChromeOS media player lets you control media being cast or start casting media to speakers and screens on your local network.

Battery Saver will now reduce brightness on your display and keyboard backlighting, throttle display refresh rate and available compute budget, and turn off certain energy-intensive background functions to let you squeeze more battery life out of your devices. When enabled, Battery Saver switches on automatically when your battery level reaches 20%.

Three new Generative AI (GenAI) features are now available for managed users signed into Chrome browser:

• Tab organizer: Chrome can automatically suggest tab groups based on the URL and title of opened websites. To use this feature, right-click on any tab and select Organize similar tabs.
• Create themes with AI: Create a unique Chrome theme (a combination of a color and a wallpaper image) using GenAI. To use the feature, open a new tab. At the bottom right click Customize Chrome. Select Change theme > Create with AI. You can then choose from preset options for subject, mood, style, and color.
• Get help writing on the web with AI: Kickstart the writing process, and write with more confidence, in free-form text fields across the web. To use this feature, right-click on a text field and select Help me write.

Initially, these three features will only be available to users in English in the US. Admins can control these settings using the following policies: TabOrganizerSettings⁠⁠, CreateThemesSettings⁠⁠ and HelpMeWriteSettings⁠⁠.

BeyondCorp Enterprise (BCE)⁠⁠ enables continuous and real-time end-to-end protection. Content scanning with BCE is a new way to evaluate and enforce data controls restrictions on file transfers based on signals from BeyondCorp Enterprise.

We’ve introduced certain internal changes to our SAML single sign-on implementation. These changes will impact customers with misconfigured SAML settings. In particular, if you set the policy LoginAuthenticationBehavior⁠⁠ to Redirect to SAML IdP by default, ensure that the Single Sign-on⁠⁠ policy is set to Enable SAML—otherwise your SAML-based IdP won’t be loaded.

From ChromeOS 122 on, certain third-party Identity Management Providers (IdPs) can use badge authentication on ChromeOS devices. Users can simply start a session with a badge tap, and leave the session with another badge tap. To learn more, see Set up badge-based authentication⁠⁠.

ChromeOS 122 includes new options in the Admin console for Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2⁠⁠) VPN protocols.

Admins can now specify if there are certain extensions that users must turn on to use Incognito mode. There is a new toggle in Admin console > Apps & extensions that can be applied for individual extensions. To use Incognito mode, users need to turn on Allow in Incognito for all required enterprise extensions.

When using App Streaming on Chromebooks, you can now use ChromeVox to navigate a streaming Android app. The Android app’s accessibility tree is streamed in tandem with the app itself and can be interacted with using ChromeOS screen reader capabilities.

You can now enable dictation using search + d on your keyboard (or the dictation key on some Logitech keyboards). When enabling dictation, a dialog will appear to inform you that you are about to enable dictation, that certain speech files may be downloaded, and where to go to change your dictation language.

As of January 01, 2024, support has been discontinued for the ChromeOS Flex devices that officially ended support in 2023. The devices will continue to receive ChromeOS Flex updates but these updates will no longer be tested or maintained by the Flex team. For the full list of devices ending support you can review our Certified models list⁠⁠.

With a compatible printer, you can now print photographs on photograph paper, without borders.

ChromeOS 121 removes the welcome or onboarding messages offered to a new user when launching Assistant on ChromeOS for the first time.

ChromeOS Data Control events will have additional fields to enrich admin insights in the security investigation tool.

Use new DLP file restrictions to control what users can do with files on ChromeOS devices through source and destination based rules. DLP file restrictions are now available for events like copy and paste, screen capture, screen sharing, and printing. IT administrators can create an information protection strategy with rules based on the data source, destination and user.

ChromeOS 120 introduces fast access to operations such as desk visualization, desk switching, desk creation, and desk ordering via a new shelf button. The ChromeOS Virtual Desk Button (“Bento Button”) is now available for all users who utilize virtual desks.

ChromeOS 120 deprecates support for MPEG4 Part 2 video codec and AVI container. You can temporarily re-enable support for this functionality using chrome://flags/#cros-legacy-media-formats until ChromeOS 125, after which support will be removed.

ChromeOS 120 adds new controls to let users disable mouse scroll acceleration and adjust scroll speed.

Configure settings for actions such as right-click, home, end, and page up in the Customize keyboard keys subpage.

Picture-in-Picture (PiP) windows can now be resized with a pinch gesture. Place two fingers on the window and pinch or spread to adjust the window size to your screen.

ChromeOS 120 brings a new dynamic color palette to the floating Emoji and GIF Picker.

Authentication events (login/out lock/unlock) can now be enabled as part of Extended Detection and Response (XDR) on ChromeOS. Once rollout is complete, XDR systems will be able to use these events to provide insights on the device security posture.

Get details about installed apps. Navigate to Settings > Apps > Manage your apps, select an app to view the app’s storage usage, version number, and information about how it was installed.

• PowerManagementIdleSettings⁠⁠: Manage screen dim, screen off, and idle actions.
• ScreenLockDelays⁠⁠: Set the length of time before a screen lock when a user is idle.
• LidCloseAction⁠⁠: Specify the action to take when the lid of the device is closed.
• ChromeOsLockOnIdleSuspend⁠⁠: Set whether the screen locks after the device’s lid is closed.
• PrivateNetworkAccessRestrictionsEnabled⁠⁠: Specify whether to apply restrictions to requests to more-private network endpoints.
• DeviceFlexHwDataForProductImprovementEnabled⁠⁠: Send hardware data to Google to support improvements to ChromeOS Flex.
• IPv6ReachabilityOverrideEnabled⁠⁠: Enable IPv6 reachability check override.
• DataUrlInSvgUseEnabled⁠⁠: Enable Data URL support for SVGUseElement, which will be disabled by default starting in ChromeOS 119.

Chrome 119 removes WebSQL access in all contexts. Access to WebSQL is available until Chrome 123 using the WebSQLAccess⁠⁠ policy, but we recommend that WebSQL users switch to SQLite compiled to WebAssembly.

Completely turn off your camera or microphone with a single click. ChromeOS users can now manage their camera and microphone settings across the operating system from one place: Settings > Security and Privacy > Privacy controls.

You can now organize, save, and recall groups of tabs with Tab Groups. Tab Groups sync between devices to provide a cohesive user experience. You can disable syncing Tab Groups using the SyncTypesListDisabled⁠⁠ policy.

Enterprise users on Chromebook Plus⁠⁠ devices can now make their My Drive section of Google Drive available offline. You can control offline syncing using the DriveFileSyncAvailable⁠⁠ enterprise policy.

To improve Chrome’s stability, DevTools internal errors are now reported through Chrome’s existing crash reporting pipeline. This provides visibility into the stability of Chrome DevTools.

This GUI improvement is targeted toward improving users’ understanding of the associated effects on their data.

With App Launch Automation, admins can now configure groups of applications, windows and tools that can be launched automatically on startup or on-demand by users throughout their day.

Chrome 119 introduces a new PPAPISharedImagesForVideoDecoderAllowed⁠⁠ policy to control the recent refactor for VideoDecoder APIs in PPAPI plugin.

For standard Safe Browsing protection users, visited URLs now have their safety checked in real time instead of against a less frequently updated local list of unsafe URLs. If needed, the feature can be disabled through the policy SafeBrowsingProxiedRealTimeChecksAllowed⁠⁠.

Prior to Chrome 119, when a cross origin redirect, such as from foo.test to bar.test, happened with an Authorization header, Chrome preserved the Authorization header and bar.test could receive the header. Starting Chrome 119, Chrome removes Authorization headers when cross origin redirects happen.

Let your users manage multiple tabs within a single window by displaying your Progressive Web App (PWA) in tabbed application mode. Tabbed application mode provides an intuitive, familiar tab navigation strip for users to manage multiple files, documents, or conversations simultaneously.

To use tabbed application mode with your PWA, update display_override in your web app manifest:

{
  "display": "standalone",
  "display_override": ["tabbed"]
}

Touch text editing is easier and more intuitive. Updates to touch text editing include a more intuitive gesture system, usability improvements around gesture intentions and text legibility, and a brand new magnifier that automatically shows precise cursor positions.

Password recovery is faster. ChromeOS users who have forgotten their password can now recover their account along with all associated local data, rather than losing their local data. Administrators can control this feature with the RecoveryFactorBehavior policy.

ChromeOS now provides more in-context help for printing, including an easier way to save printers, new set up instructions and help content, and printer status directly integrated on the settings page.

Take timelapse video without leaving the built-in Camera App on your ChromeOS device. To use this feature, open the Camera App, select Video, and then select Timelapse. Camera App determines the right speed for the timelapse video based on duration recorded—and you can record for as long as you have space available on your device.

Control the look of your ChromeOS device using the new ChromeOS Personalization App. Thanks to Google Material 3⁠⁠, Google’s new design platform, ChromeOS 117 brings with it:

• A new set of themes which dynamically update to reflect your wallpaper and style.
• A new look for almost all system surfaces with updated text, menus, icons or elements.

Adaptive Charging is a new ChromeOS power management feature. Devices with Adaptive Charging enabled via Settings will charge to 80% and then complete charging to 100% based on an ML model’s prediction for when you will unplug your device. Reducing the time a device spends at 100% charge helps preserve the battery’s health and its ability to hold a charge over the lifetime of the device.

ChromeOS now has built-in color correction settings that make it easier to see colors on your screen. In ChromeOS Accessibility settings, under Display and Magnification, you can enable color filters for protanopia, deuteranopia or tritanopia, or to view the display in grayscale. Use a slider to customize the filters’ intensity to meet your needs.

ChromeOS 117 introduces enhancements to Clipboard History, including new entry points, ways to discover the feature, and simplifying feature comprehension—making it easier to discover and use. You can now see more detail for items in your clipboard history and access clipboard history items nested directly in context menus.

Android 13 has started to roll out to ChromeOS. Test your app with Android 13 behavior changes—and develop with Android 13 APIs—by setting up the Android 13 SDK⁠⁠, using an Android Virtual Device (AVD), or testing on ChromeOS devices updated with Android 13.

Starting in ChromeOS 117, and gradually applying to all ChromeOS devices, this Bluetooth software change brings the Android Bluetooth stack, Fluoride, to ChromeOS. The transition happens seamlessly on login, preserving existing paired devices, and should work with Bluetooth devices today with no interruptions. If you experience issues, please file feedback and, if necessary, disable the new stack via chrome://flags/#bluetooth-use-floss.

Audible sounds now indicate battery status. Users can turn on and off these sounds and Admins can control them using the [DeviceLowBatterySoundEnabled](https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#DeviceLowBatterySoundEnabled) policy.

The emoji picker now supports GIFs. Search and find the perfect GIF to express yourself. For managed devices, this feature is disabled by default.

See your upcoming events directly from the calendar view and join any digital meetings directly with the new Join button.

We’ve made some changes to the initial out-of-the-box experience (OOBE) dialog that explains what ChromeVox is, who might benefit from activating ChromeVox, and requires pressing space instead of offering an on-screen button. With this update, we hope to reduce the number of users who inadvertently activate ChromeVox.

When you search for the status of your OS version, battery, RAM, storage, or CPU, in Launcher, you can now see that information previewed in the search results.

Administrators can now control and limit the available content on end-users login and lock screens when identity federation is used with a third party identity provider (using SAML or OIDC), using two new policies: [DeviceAuthenticationURLAllowlist](https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#DeviceAuthenticationURLAllowlist) and [DeviceAuthenticationURLBlocklist](https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#DeviceAuthenticationURLBlocklist).

This feature enables administrators to demand managed users to enroll their non-zero touch devices by introducing a new user policy, UserEnrollmentNudging, which can be configured to require enrollment of the given user. If the policy is enabled and the managed user misses the enrollment step and performs first sign in on the device, a pop-up is shown suggesting to either switch to enrollment flow or use another email for sign-in, essentially preventing the managed user from signing in without enrollment.

ChromeOS 116 introduces a data processor mode⁠⁠ for a suite of ChromeOS features and services called Essential Services⁠⁠. Now, features and services for which Google remains solely a data controller are called “Optional Services”. New tools available in data processor mode for ChromeOS include a data processor mode landing page in the Admin console, the ability to turn on/off individual Optional Services, tools to assist customers with Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs), and a tool to assist customers with data subject deletion requests.

Input method support within Linux apps on ChromeOS is now available by default. You can now use Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and other keyboard languages⁠⁠ in locally installed Linux apps on Chromebooks, like VS Code and LibreOffice—a long standing feature request⁠⁠. Input method support is currently available for GTK⁠⁠ and Electron apps. This update also enables use of the emoji picker.

As early as Chrome 116, Chrome Apps webview⁠⁠ usage has a new restriction. Using the webview NewWindow⁠⁠ event to attach to a webview element in another App window causes the window reference returned by the window.open call in the originating webview to be invalidated. A temporary policy, ChromeAppsWebViewPermissiveBehaviorAllowed⁠⁠, is available to give enterprises time to address possible breakage related to these changes.

Autocorrect is now enabled by default for English in compatible apps, automatically fixing typos, spelling, and other errors. In addition to the new Autocorrect for physical keyboards, this update also enhances the performance of the virtual keyboard’s Autocorrect and other Assistive features.

Through Optical Character Recognition (OCR), users can convert images to text, so that they can access and read them using a screen reader.

In ChromeOS 116, you now access the existing settings for ChromeVox under the ChromeOS Accessibility settings pages.

Users can now manage settings for their input peripherals, such as their mouse and keyboard, at the device level and apply different values for different devices.

Now, users can see a detailed view of the data an Android app can access on the Apps page in Settings, and they can easily manage those permissions.

Starting with ChromeOS 116, we streamline the end user configuration flows for ChromeOS Kerberos customers. The new UI enhancements guide users through configuring their Kerberos accounts in a guided flow, similar to Password Manager. For details, see this help center⁠⁠ article.

The commercial launch of screensaver for the login screen or MGS lock screen allows admins to customize the appearance of idle devices. Newly added admin settings include the abilities to turn on/off the screensaver, to provide a list of screensaver images, and to customize idle times.

The policy for URL-keyed anonymized data collection is now supported in Kiosk mode. This policy will be added to the Admin console in a future release.

As of ChromeOS 115, App Streaming enhances the Phone Hub⁠⁠ experience, by allowing users to see and interact with streamed apps running on their Pixel phone. When a user receives a mirrored conversation notification from their Pixel phone, tapping on that notification kicks off an app stream directly to the user’s ChromeOS desktop. This is part of a Google-wide ambient computing⁠⁠ effort.

In Chrome 115, a new window layout menu in ChromeOS helps to accelerate common actions like split-screening two windows. In addition, we’re adding a new window state, float, which allows users to set a window as always-on-top.

While using cast moderator⁠⁠, sometimes users need a quick way to pause what they are casting from their device. In ChromeOS 115, with Pause cast, you can now pause what you cast to the shared screen on a still image, while you do something else on your computer. In ChromeOS Quick Settings or from Chrome browser Cast menu, select Pause to display the last casted screen on the cast receiver. While paused, other actions you perform on your computer are not cast to the cast receiver. When cast is resumed, your computer starts mirroring to the cast receiver again.

In ChromeOS 115, the Gallery PDF toolkit makes it easier for users to sign their documents, allowing for the creation of a free-hand signature that is saved in the app for subsequent use. Gallery is the ChromeOS media multi-tool that provides users with fast, consistent, and discoverable ways to view, tweak, and route various media types.

Passpoint streamlines Wi-Fi access and eliminates the need for users to find and authenticate a network each time they visit. Once a user accesses the Wi-Fi network offered at a location, the Passpoint-enabled client device will automatically connect upon subsequent visits. Wi-Fi Passpoint is now supported on ChromeOS through supported Android applications. Wi-Fi Passpoint is a set of Wi-Fi mechanisms defined by the Wi-Fi Alliance that facilitate and automate the provisioning and configuration of secure Wi-Fi networks while also minimizing user intervention. Once provisioned, whenever a compatible and secured Wi-Fi network is in range, ChromeOS can automatically connect to it without the need for user interaction.

Some Google Text-to-Speech voices that were previously preinstalled are now downloaded over the network when they are needed. This frees up some space on the ChromeOS device.

The new Shortcut App offers a new navigation and taxonomy, easier in-app search functionalities and a refreshed shortcut visualization.

Cursive⁠⁠, a stylus-first notes app, will be pre-installed for all Enterprise and Education accounts on stylus-enabled Chromebooks. If you want to block access to the app⁠⁠, you can prevent Chromebooks in your enterprise from accessing cursive.apps.chrome.

Starting with ChromeOS 114, Passpoint will streamline Wi-Fi access and eliminate the need for users to find and authenticate a network each time they visit. Once a user accesses the Wi-Fi network offered at a location, the Passpoint-enabled client device will automatically connect upon subsequent visits.

Extensions allow admins to enforce security features and customizations in their organizational unit but they cannot be enforced in Incognito mode without user consent. This can be a problem as users can bypass extension-set features, for example, proxies by using Incognito mode for navigation.The MandatoryExtensionsForIncognitoNavigation⁠⁠ policy allows you to configure a list of extensions that users need to explicitly allow to run in Incognito, to use Incognito mode for navigation.

Settings on ChromeOS now have a more native OS settings experience housed in the Settings app, available through App Launcher or the cog icon in the Quick Settings menu. In ChromeOS 114, users can now find all sound controls in the ChromeOS Settings apps.

ChromeVox⁠⁠ is the built-in screen reader on Chromebooks. In ChromeOS 114, an audio indicator (an earcon) now plays when a user with ChromeVox enabled uses the ChromeVox keyboard shortcut to toggle selection on or off.

In ChromeOS 113, a new option allows users to preview screensaver settings before applying the change. This preview is especially useful when using Google Photos with animations.

Access the Rupee symbol faster than before. ChromeOS 112 introduced a Rupee symbol shortcut: ₹ (altgr+4). On the virtual keyboard, you can access the Rupee symbol in the More Symbols menu.

Enhance demos made with Screen Capture by letting users see your clicks and keyboard shortcuts on screen. Screen Capture brings users closer together—and makes it easier to collaborate in a remote and hybrid world.

From troubleshooting to standups, screencasts⁠⁠ let you work remotely as though you’re in the same office—wherever you are in the world. Now, screencasts can be recorded and transcribed in a wide range of languages including Spanish, Japanese, French, Italian, and German.

On ChromeOS devices, speech-to-text transcription is done on-device via SODA⁠⁠. SODA was only available for devices set to ENG-US—so, only English-speaking users in the US could record screencasts. ChromeOS 111 extends recording capabilities to a broader range of languages by integrating Google’s S3 Speech-to-Text API⁠⁠.

ChromeOS 111 includes an update to the algorithm that automatically matches your dark/light color theme to your wallpaper. Enjoy improved color aesthetics, readability, and contrast, for a more pleasant and accessible visual experience.

New ChromeOS releases don’t just add features—they include bug fixes and optimizations that keep ChromeOS stable. You can help by reporting bugs⁠⁠ to the developer community. Under the hood, the new release includes a variety of other improvements to events management, APIs, and UX.

ChromeOS 111 released to beta on February 9 and is currently available as a stable release. To continue getting essential ChromeOS information, sign up for the ChromeOS newsletter.

Trying out the latest version of ChromeOS? If you’re on a non-stable channel (such as Beta, Dev, or Canary), you can see which channel you’re on. Channel labeling now appears next to the Battery Icon on the bottom right of your screen.

Clicking on the the Time will open quick settings. There, you’ll see channel labeling, too, with the version you’re on and a button to quickly submit feedback. Clicking on the channel label will take you to a settings screen that includes the ability to change your channel, see your update schedule, and get build details for your device.

Quickly approve blocked websites on your child’s Chromebook without the Family Link App⁠⁠. When blocked from accessing a website, your child can ask you to approve their request in person.

For more details, see Manage your child’s account on Chromebook⁠⁠.

Sound more natural in calls and conferences when using a Bluetooth headset. Your ChromeOS device now increases call quality by reconstructing the high-frequency audio components that are not transmitted from Bluetooth headsets.

Manage your storage more effectively when using the ChromeOS Camera App⁠⁠. Now, if ChromeOS Camera detects that your system storage is running low, it shows a warning message—and stops recording before using all your storage.

Get the answers you need faster. As you share your problems, concerns, or suggestions through the Google Feedback form⁠⁠, Assistive Feedback returns related help articles to help you self-diagnose your problems.

ChromeOS 110 hit stable release in early February, bringing with it the above features and a variety of smaller enhancements. Other features include improvements to Select-to-speak⁠⁠ and the ability to view PostScript Printer Description (PPD) information across network printers.

If you use your ChromeOS device in multiple scenarios—such as in the office, school, and home—switching between audio devices just became easier. ChromeOS 109 maintains a priority list of audio devices, ordered by user preference. Activate, plug in, or unplug a headset or speakers, and your ChromeOS device will pull the associated settings.

In the ChromeOS color palette dialog, you can now choose between Palette and Custom tabs. Tapping the Custom tab displays a freeform color select tool. Users can also enter a HEX code to choose a specific color.

ChromeOS uses Happiness Tracking Surveys (HaTS)⁠⁠ surveys to measure user attitudes and ultimately improve user experiences. In ChromeOS 109, we send an expanded dataset for analysis to the User Metrics Analysis (UMA) server⁠⁠.

If you have a Chromebook with a touchscreen, it’s now even easier to type what you want with a newly redesigned virtual keyboard⁠⁠. With just a tap on the new header bar, you can switch between languages, pull up the emoji library, or access the handwriting tool. The virtual keyboard also processes fast typing even faster—no need to slow yourself down.

Manage your documents digitally. Now you can create multi-page PDFs using the document scanning function in the ChromeOS Camera App⁠⁠.

Previously, deleting a file from “My files” would instantly and permanently delete it. Now, it will go to a new “Trash” section. You’ll have 30 days to change your mind before it’s permanently deleted. Note: This new feature doesn’t support Play, Linux, or Windows file locations.

As of ChromeOS 107, you can save and close an entire Virtual Desk⁠⁠. Save your desk state—including app windows and layouts—whenever you want to switch gears or focus on a different task. When you’re ready to switch back, you can open your saved desk with a click.

ChromeOS 107 introduced new privacy features leveraging the Human Presence Sensor⁠⁠. The Human Presence Sensor will lock the screen when you leave—and alert you when another person is looking at your screen. Related features include “Keep Awake,” which prevents the screen from dimming when you’re present, and “Viewing Protection,” which alerts you when an additional person is detected.

ChromeOS 107 provides a variety of improvements to its accessibility settings⁠⁠, including more accurate search results, easier to understand feature descriptions, and modifications to the layout for increased discoverability.

Control your RGB keyboard across four defined zones with the Personalization Hub UI. When you click the Rainbow option, the colors will appear across four zones—rather than a per-key rainbow effect. Read more about using keyboard backlighting on supported devices: Use gaming features on your Chromebook⁠⁠.

Newly installed apps will no longer handle links clicked in the browser by default. Links clicked in the browser will now open in the browser, unless the “Opening supported links” setting is enabled within the Settings app.

Color and size settings now persist. Customize your pen while writing notes and your customization will persist into a new session. In the note library, your favorite pen settings—such as color or size—will carry into new notes.