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Just before Christmas, a new feature that’s been in the works for a little while made its way down to the ChromeOS 120 Beta Channel. I had moved to Beta to try a few other things and was curious about this new productivity feature. After flipping on the flag and giving it a go, I became a bit reliant on it for daily tasks, and I’m super-excited to find that with the latest update to ChromeOS 120, this new feature has come along for the ride. You just need to know the flag to turn on.
Window snapping + overview mode
First, for those that didn’t see the original post about this new feature, let me explain. Generally speaking, when users utilize the screen split options available in ChromeOS (drag a window to the edge of the display, hover the resize button at the top-right corner of an open window, etc.), they are doing so in order to put a couple widows side-by-side for a particular task.
This new feature is built for this scenario, and upon snapping a window, ChromeOS will automatically show the overview mode of all other open windows in the remaining space on screen. Click the window you want in the opposing space and voilà, you now have the second window snapped into place as well.
How to try it out now in ChromeOS 120
As you can see, this is a very handy tool for quick productivity and it is one that I’ve learned to rely on at this point for a lot of scenarios. So, if you’d also like to get hooked on it the same way that I am, you can do so quite simply if you are updated to ChromeOS 120. As long as you are, just head to chrome://flags in the browser and find the flag called Enable Faster Split Screen Setup (or simply go here: chrome://flags/ash-faster-split-screen-setup), turn it on, restart, and you’ll be up and running.
That’s it! I guarantee if you try it, you’ll find great usefulness in it. There are a few animation hiccups here and there, and I’d guess that’s why it’s not a headlining feature in ChromeOS 120 at this point. But it works without fail (so far, at least) to help you quickly get your windows arranged when you need it. And, again, this is just another small, meaningful feature that helps ChromeOS be more useful, simpler to navigate, and better for all users across the board.
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