All the new changes listed in the ChromeOS 128 release notes

Yesterday, we saw the wide roll-out of ChromeOS 128, but we didn’t have the official release notes handy. Thankfully, late yesterday those were added to both the Chromebook Help Forums and to ChromeOS.dev. So, in a nutshell, here’s all the ChromeOS team is announcing with this latest release.

Snap Groups for better organization

ChromeOS 128 introduces Snap Groups as a new feature for Overview mode, allowing you to effortlessly pair windows for a split-screen layout. Once you’ve created a Snap Group (snapping one window to the left and one to the right), you can see them as a group in Overview mode, resize them simultaneously, or even move them both as a unit to another Virtual Desk. This is a big addition for multitaskers who need to juggle multiple snapped windows at once.

New privacy control reminders

Navigating privacy settings can sometimes feel like a maze. ChromeOS 128 simplifies things with privacy control reminders on the Apps settings page. No more confusion about camera and microphone permissions – the system will clearly indicate their status and guide you through any necessary adjustments. Everyone values their privacy, and ChromeOS is making it even easier to stay in control.

ChromeOS 128 also empowers you to manage geolocation access with granular precision. You can now set access to Allowed, Only allowed for system services, or Off globally, or even on an app-by-app basis. It’s your location data, and you get to decide how it’s used.

OCR (optical character recognition) in the Camera app

With integrated OCR, the Camera app now acts as your personal text extractor. Hold up a document, sign, or even a whiteboard scribble, and the AI-powered OCR kicks in with the ability to identify text in 77 languages; and it doesn’t care if the text is horizontal or vertical.

Copy that text straight into a document, search for specific words within your photos, or even have your Chromebook read the text aloud using the screen reader. Need a searchable PDF? No problem, the Camera app has you covered. Just head to Settings > Text detection in preview the Camera app to turn it on and try it out.

Other performance and accessibility enhancements

Beyond the visible features, ChromeOS 128 packs some important improvements under the hood. Aggregated vitals data retention is extended to a year, helping Google track progress and fine-tune Android app performance on Chromebooks.

Accessibility gets a boost, too. The Magnifier now seamlessly follows ChromeVox, keeping visually impaired users focused on the text being read aloud. Auto Gain Control is enabled by default, ensuring optimal microphone volume for better clarity in video calls.

For those with cellular-enabled Chromebooks, new streamlined APN management is here to help users view, manage and add APNs more quickly. Pinned notifications have a new, visual separation to help you distinguish them from standard notifications, but I haven’t seen this in action just yet.

Truth be told, there’s far more in this update than I was expecting, and it’s one of the big reasons I love ChromeOS so much. It feels like the last update was just a few days ago (4 weeks goes by so fast), and yet here we are with a whole new batch of features and changes. A friendly reminder: this update and its features will roll out gradually, so don’t panic if your device doesn’t get every one of these new goodies right away.