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The Bluetooth stack on Chrome OS has been less than stellar for years. Any peripherals you connect can be inconsistent, and sometimes straight up not work at all depending on the device – specifically those sporting Stone Peak wireless cards. A new commit on the Chromium Repository now shows that Google is working to abandon its BlueZ stack – the Bluetooth stack that currently exists in Chromebooks and Linux – in favor of the stack found in Android. This new initiative, first discovered by Android Police, is known as Floss.
[Floss]: Add feature flag for development
Add feature flag to control enabling Floss for development. Floss refers to the ongoing work to enable running the Android Bluetooth stack on ChromeOS and Linux. This is not being added to chrome://flags yet because it is intended for developers only at this time.
BUG=b:189497491
TEST=autoninja chrome
As you can see, this isn’t releasing any time soon. It’s in early development, and will not be added as a Chrome flag just yet since it’s still being tested by developers. Regardless, it’s interesting to see Chrome OS look to Android, its inbuilt operating system for answers where it couldn’t find them natively.
Google already tried to fix its Chromebook Bluetooth woes with an earlier initiative called NewBlue, but it ultimately didn’t work out. If it can make connecting peripherals more reliable for all users, then Chrome OS adoption could rise even further. We’ll keep you up to date on any news regarding Floss as it unfolds, but in the meantime, keep in mind that any Bluetooth development is tricky, so Google has a lot of work ahead of itself.
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