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Chrome OS 64 isn’t a new revelation in any way, shape or form. As a matter of fact, it came out just over 5 weeks ago at this point. Those of you doing the math have calculated correctly if you’ve deduced that we likely only have a week left before Chrome OS 65 rolls out.
Chrome OS updates happen roughly every 6 weeks, so we fully expect to see a release of 65 sometime in the next week.
What Did 64 Bring?
Between updates, it is difficult to remember what showed up in any given update. So, for those of you who have been waiting around for Chrome OS 64 to show up, here’s what you can expect:
- Take screenshots faster on Chromebooks with a 360-degree hinge by pressing the power and volume down buttons at the same time (*note – we’ve seen this feature in Stable for some time now on many devices)
- Revamped Intent Picker for Play Applications (Same window by default with override)
- Lockscreen Performance Improvements
- Enable VPN for Google Play Apps
- Enhancements to our protected media pipeline for Android
- Android Container Auto Update Optimizations
- Touchscreen pairing settings
- Site Muting
Our Pixelbook and Samsung Chromebook Pro both updated to OS 64 yesterday, so I haven’t spent much time with it just yet. Mainly, I’m just happy that it looks like everyone is finally seeing some version parity, so I can cross my fingers that the update to 65 happens a bit more succinctly.
One of the best parts of being a Chromebook user is the comfort of knowing that my device will always be on the latest software. This last update cycle wasn’t great for a few of the flagship devices, so I’d love to see that cleaned up moving forward.
Chances are since some devices just received 64, when Chrome OS 65 does roll out, it will be staggered again. If they can close that gap a bit with each update, we can hopefully be back to a point where everyone is getting OS updates within days of one another.
