ChromeOS 124 is rolling out to most Chromebooks today

Today, ChromeOS 124 is rolling out on time and looks like it should be available to any and all ChromeOS devices that are still receiving updates. Assuming your device has not reached the end its extended, 10-year AUE, you should be able to head to Settings > About ChromeOS > Check for updates and get started with your update right away.

According to cros.tech, all devices are onboard this time around, so no worries here about being oddly left behind on this ChromeOS update. Usually, when updates roll out this smoothly for all devices, it signifies there isn’t a ton of new stuff under the hood (at least on first inspection), and that absolutely seems to be the case this time around. There are a few new things to check out, however, so let’s talk about them.

No, Lacros is not here

First up, let’s talk about Lacros. The split, ChromeOS-specific version of the Chrome browser is unfortunately not here this time around. I didn’t really expect it to be, but we also started seeing it enabled by default in ChromeOS 124 in the Canary Channel a few weeks back. While not a guarantee of anything, it made me wonder if ChromeOS 124 would be the update where we finally see Chrome the browser detach from Chrome the OS. Not this time around, but you can still flip a feature flag (chrome://flags/#lacros-only) to use it right now if you so choose.

Some fun additions

A few things that did make it into ChromeOS 124, however, are the updated Settings app, a return of the new Material You Chrome design, a tidied-up Virtual Desks button, and the arrival of a tiny feature I’ve been waiting on for quite some time.

Let’s start with the Settings app update. While it’s been around behind a flag for a bit, the overhauled, reorganized Settings App is here in ChromeOS 124 and it feels so much more on-brand than before. Not only is it oozing with Material You design, it’s also restructured more like the settings menus we see on our phones, grouping items in particular pages instead of one, long stream of settings. It’s a welcome update and one that will make new users likely feel far more comfortable, too.

Second, we have all our Material You flourishes in Chrome once again. Including the new Side Panel layout, Chrome is back to being the colorful, current look and feel that I really enjoyed before it randomly disappeared a few weeks ago. Hopefully, whatever issues there were have been ironed out and we have the theme-matching Chrome browser back on Chromebooks once again.

Third up is a small change to the Virtual Desks button on the shelf. It’s subtle, but the desks button now changes size based on the text of the desk name and it takes up far less space. It works the same and the update that happened with the look and feel of it in ChromeOS 123 is still here; it’s just smaller and less space-hogging now.

Finally, you can use a 2-finger trackpad gesture to swipe away notifications. This one has been around since ChromeOS 121 introduced it and never actually delivered it. For devices without a touchscreen, however, this is a much-needed update and users can now hover over a notification and swipe to the side with two fingers on the trackpad to dismiss it. I love it!

New flags to try out

There are likely more than the few we’ll cover, here, but as always, new features are lurking behind feature flags with ChromeOS 124. The first one is called Mouse Keys and this is a feature that just showed up in the Chromium Repositories back in February. This feature allows the keyboard to control the mouse cursor for those that may have issue with navigating a trackpad or standard mouse.

You can head to chrome://flags/enable-accessibility-mousekeys to enable it, and once you do, you can head to Settings > Accessibility > Cursor and touchpad > Mouse Keys to turn it on. You’ll get a few options, and once you enable this setting (hit CTRL+SHIFT+M) you’ll be able to move the mouse cursor around the screen with the 8,9,0,u,o,j,k,l keys and click on items with the i key. It’s pretty cool to see this in action.

Second, you can now enable Super-Res Zoom for the ChromeOS camera app. If you head to chrome://flags/camera-app-digital-zoom and enable the flag, you’ll see a new button in your camera that allows for pan/tilt/zoom even on cameras that don’t support that feature. Using a bit of Google’s photo magic, the resulting images and videos captured with this digital zoom do end up looking a bit better than what you see in the viewfinder. The change is subtle, sure, but over time it could result in digital zooming that looks quite convincing as true zoom.

For now, that’s all I’ve found. I’m certain there will be a few new things I’ve not yet found in ChromeOS 124, and hopefully Google will give us some official release notes soon. So now its your turn: update to the latest version and get to searching to see what you can find and let us know in the comments!