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Some features may not create the productivity of others and yet when they come along I think, “why wasn’t this a thing all along?” One such feature may be making its way to Chrome OS very soon and that is tether properties on your Chromebook.
The term “tether properties” may not ring a bell to you but chances are pretty high you will recognize them when you see them. If you’re like us, from time to time we have to tether to our phones for different reasons. Data on the go, maybe while driving or the internet at the coffee shop is down. Whatever the case, sometimes you need to tether.
Some of you may recognize this feature from connecting your phone to your car via BlueTooth. Your phones battery life and signal strength will be displayed onscreen when synced. It might look something like this.
You get the idea. Well, it looks as though a similar feature may be coming to Chrome OS. A recent submission to the Chromium code review shows the addition of “tether properties” to the NetworkStateHandler. If the change makes it to the Stable channel we can expect to see battery percentage, signal strength and carrier information when tethered to a mobile hotspot.
This may seem like a minuscule option but I know personally I have tethered to my phone, dug into work and completely ignored the fact that my phone is about to die. Having the information in my system tray would be a good reminder to keep an eye on my device.
The code review is only a few days old so there’s no ETA on when we might see it in the wild but it’s another small tweak that has great use. You can follow the progress at the link below.
