It’s time for Chromebook app streaming to arrive on Samsung phones

With Chromebooks, there’s not a ton of pressure on users to own a Pixel phone to get all the best Chromebook+Smartphone features, but there is a little bit of that. Depending on how you utilize something like App Streaming from your phone to your Chromebook, the Phone Hub feature difference between something like the Pixel 8 and the Samsung Galaxy S24 could be a deciding factor in which phone you upgrade to. And it really shouldn’t be.

Samsung and Google are tighter than ever

Since the Samsung Unpacked event that introduced both the Galaxy S24 lineup and Samsung AI to the world, it has been quite clear that Google and Samsung are on a new level of cooperation. We now have what once were Pixel-only features like Circle to Search launching on both Samsung’s latest devices at the same time it appears on Google’s own Pixel phones.

And then with Chromebooks, we are seeing signs that Samsung’s new ‘Xol’ Chromebook Plus will come equipped with an Assistant key as well. No other Chromebook has had this sort of addition besides Google’s own Pixelbook, Pixel Slate, and Pixelbook Go, so it feels quite certain that the two companies are working closely together on some things on the ChromeOS side as well.

It’s time for Samsung phones to get the latest Phone Hub features

So it only seems right that Samsung phones should get the Pixel treatment when it comes to Chromebooks moving forward. For now, there’s not a ton of upside to using a Pixel phone with your Chromebook versus any other Android device, but there are some perks. The biggest one by far is the addition of App Streaming, and right now that is still limited to Pixel phones, a handful of Xaomi devices for and the first two Nothing phones. Why those brands are included is unclear at this point, but Samsung isn’t definitely isn’t on that list. Yet.

While I don’t use app streaming too often on my Chromebook, I could see plenty of users who opt to not mess with apps like WhatsApp or Discord on their Chromebook and instead just rely on the phone version streamed to the desktop to take care of these tasks. And of all the phone brands Google should include in the mix for this pretty cool feature, Samsung should be at the top of the pile for certain.

There was a time when the two companies didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but those days are clearly in the rear-view mirror and the time is now for ChromeOS and Samsung phones to work seamlessly together. Samsung owns the Android market by an order of magnitude, and if Google wants the best possible experience between Android and ChromeOS, that path leads through Samsung. Here’s hoping the newfound friendship between the two extends to ChromeOS by the time ‘Xol’ (the new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus?) arrives.