chromeOS Personalization Hub adding new, more Googley “Float on by” screensaver

Chrome OS – or should I say “chromeOS” – received an update on the Canary channel this morning that added a beautiful, new screensaver to the up-and-coming Personalization Hub. After applying the update and restarting, I noticed upon attempting to re-enable my Google Photos screensaver integration that the generic “Feel the breeze” clothing pin Polaroids were no longer the only option for displaying your memories while your Chromebook is not actively being used.

As you can see in the video below, I’ve not only enabled the “Float on by” screensaver option found by right-clicking the wallpaper or “desktop” on my Chromebook and then going to “screensaver” in the aforementioned Personalization Hub, but I’ve also enabled “Google Photos” as the image source. After selecting albums that contain pictures of my son, I locked my Chromebook and waited just a short few seconds for the new screensaver option to appear.

“Float on by” is extremely Googley compared to the Polaroids that came before it. It seems as though Google has finally implemented something with more thought. The “Slideshow” option already existed, but was not housed in the Hub before today’s update, and the Feel the Breeze screensaver almost felt like a placeholder. By comparison, this new option truly feels designed with the newer, more mature and polished chromeOS in mind.

I’m not sure when this should arrive for chromeOS Stable, but when it does, I’m certain that many users will find it appealing, warm and inviting. People have been begging Google for years for a screensaver option, and someone has even created a Chrome extension that kind of sort of does such a thing, but last I checked it was very outdated.