Of all the new Chromebook Plus features, these two are the most helpful for me

Last week, Google and Lenovo took the wraps off the new Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 -the most advanced Chromebook Plus yet – and a whole suite of new AI-powered features for the entire Plus lineup. And while all the updates are welcome, after digging through everything, there are two new features that – for me, at least – stand out as genuine game-changers for how I’ll use our Chromebooks every day.

These aren’t just minor tweaks; they are thoughtful additions that solve real problems and represent a significant step forward in making AI a truly helpful, integrated part of the ChromeOS experience.

A dedicated key for on-demand AI creation

First up is the new addition to the Quick Insert key. While Quick Insert itself is far from new, a new addition allows you to easily generate AI images right within you workflow.

Imagine you’re writing a presentation in Google Slides and you need a custom image. Instead of stopping, opening a new tab, going to an AI image generation website, creating the image, downloading it, and then uploading it; you can now simply hit the Quick Insert key and generate the image right there.

This is a huge deal. It removes all the friction from the creative process and makes AI image generation feel like a natural, built-in tool instead of a separate task.

Select to Search is pretty incredible

The second feature that has me truly excited is the combination of “Select to search with Lens” and “Text capture.” While Google is calling it “Select to search,” the action is immediately familiar to anyone who has used Circle to Search on a Pixel phone. You can long-press the launcher button or use the screenshot tool to select anything on your screen to get more information about it, like finding a pair of shoes you see in a photo.

But the real magic happens when you combine this with Text capture. Let’s say a friend texts you an image of a flyer for a school sporting event. With this new feature, you can simply select that part of the image, and ChromeOS won’t just recognize the text; it will understand the context. An “Add to Calendar” button will instantly appear, allowing you to populate a Google Calendar event with all the details from the flyer with a single click. The same goes for pulling a shopping list from a handwritten recipe directly into a Google Doc.

While all the new AI features announced for Chromebook Plus are welcome additions, it’s these two—the seamless creation with the Quick Insert key and the effortless, actionable information capture—that feel the most useful as in-line tools. They solve real-world problems and make the entire Chromebook Plus platform feel smarter, more intuitive, and genuinely more helpful – and I can’t wait for them to show up for all Chromebook Plus users!