Let’s chalk this one up to things I’ve not noticed until brought to my attention. Some of you reading this could have noticed this long ago or perhaps it is all brand new. I honestly don’t know and, frankly, am not terribly concerned about it. If we come across a new feature on Chromebooks that no one in our office has heard of, I think we need to share it.
So, share we shall.
Today’s feature comes to us from a reader by the name of Corbin, and his findings are simple but very interesting.
If you have an Android phone and long press (the phone version of right-click) in a text entry field, you are usually met with a horizontal menu with a few choices. Check it out below:
Now, this menu shows up on Chromebooks when you highlight text in a text field, but there is now an additional menu that shows up upon a right click that looks very similar to what Chrome OS does for more standard apps. Right now, if you right-click (two-finger click) anywhere in a text field on your Chromebook in a non-Android app, you’ll see the following menu:
Now, take that look and compare it with the following menu that shows up on every Android app I’ve tried on my Pixelbook when I right click into a text field:
Even cooler? This is clearly a system-wide function that works any and everywhere based on what happens for dark color schemes. Check out the Amazon Prime Video app screenshot below:
Sure, this isn’t a game-changing feature or anything that will revolutionize the way we interact with Android apps on Chromebooks, but with the quick-moving development of Linux apps on Chromebooks, seeing the overall Android experience tightening up on Chrome OS is a very welcome, very interesting thing.