Here’s a first look at what Chromebook App Streaming will look like

Yesterday evening, different sources began to see the arrival of ChromeOS’ new App Streaming feature – well, sort of. Known as ‘Eche’ for quite some time now, App Streaming was made official by Google back at CES 2022 about 15 months ago and we really thought it would be here before now. Along with the Recent Photos, Recent Chrome Tabs, and other Phone Hub options already available on Chromebooks, App Streaming will further connect your Chormebook and Android phone for easier multitasking right from the desktop without the need of picking up your mobile device.

Google is finally rolling out the "app streaming" feature they first announced at CES 2022!

This feature uses new APIs in Android 13 to let you stream and control your Android apps from your Chromebook!

This won't be a Pixel-exclusive feature, either! https://t.co/GelNPxi8gj pic.twitter.com/VrD0t1Rn1N

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) April 4, 2023

Yesterday, Mishaal Rahman unveiled on Twitter that he had found evidence that Google was finally beginning to roll out App Streaming from Android phones to Chromebooks. This all comes with a large set of caveats and isn’t going to be something most of you can take advantage of just yet, but there are some things we can learn already about how this will all work (hopefully soon).

First off, we now have a few screenshots from Google’s Play Store listing for the Cross-Device Services app that will power this entire endeavor. You can search for this app and even install it, but according to Mishaal’s findings, for now the only working versions will have to be pre-installed from the OEM. Obviously, Pixel Phones have this already, but even if you have a Pixel phone, it seems the update needed to take advantage is a server-side one, so it may not be there for you either way.

You’ll also need to be in the Canary Channel of ChromeOS to get all of this working, so as I said, for now this new feature comes with a healthy side of caveats. I’d recommend the more conservative approach of taking a look at what it will be like when it launches and waiting patiently for it to arrive.

From the screenshots, we can see that users will have a list of supported apps and in the Phone Hub, you’ll simply be able to click in and use those apps right there in a small pop-up window. The included screen shots show a calendar event being created, and I can see small tasks like this and messaging being really simple, straightforward and usable with App Streaming when it does launch.

Interestingly, there are apps in that list that I wouldn’t have imagined would make it. Among Us, Pokemon Go and Spotify are interesting additions and I wonder about how users will leverage this quick access to their phones once it does arrive. If things are quick and seamless, I’d imagine this could replace the need to install a ton of apps on your Chromebook and could really streamline the workflow for things you generally tend to do only on your phone. It’s going to be interesting, for sure. For now, we’re waiting patiently, and we’ll hopefully be able to test this all out very soon!