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ChromeOS 120 is out for the vast majority of Chromebooks and other ChromeOS devices right now, and there are a few fun, useful new features along for the ride this time. Let's dive in a take a look at all the new stuff in ChromeOS 120.
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0:00
It's a new year, 2024 is here, and so is Chrome OS 120
0:04
and it's packed with all kinds of cool little features. There's nothing massive or headlining
0:08
I don't think, really going on here, but it's a bunch of creature comfort stuff that just makes everyday tasks a little bit simpler
0:14
So we wanted to kind of walk you through, on video, each of these new additions to Chrome OS
0:23
All right, so let's just dive right in. The first one we're gonna talk about is the virtual desk shelf button
0:30
It's not a really great name, I don't guess, for a feature, but honestly, you're not gonna be referring to it
0:35
by its name anyway. And you can see it right now on my screen down there, you can see desk one
0:39
Now, I haven't created any virtual desks, and the first time you reboot, a lot of times, if you don't have any desks open
0:45
you just kind of have your one desk there, that button won't be there until you make some desks
0:48
But let me make a couple desks here, just for the heck of it
0:52
and let me put a couple things in each one real fast
0:57
How about let's grab it, and how about a squoosh? So there you go
1:01
Now you can kind of see the difference between each of the three desks. Now, there's all these different ways
1:05
to get between your desks. I prefer the everything key, and then the little kind of square brackets
1:10
that are just above the inner key. Those move you around pretty quick
1:15
That's just kind of been my tendency for a while. You can four-finger swipe as well, if you want, between those
1:20
But now this new method is this little button down here that, as you can see, when I hover it, I get an arrow
1:26
so I can jump through the desk that way. But I can also click on this and get a quick
1:31
it's almost like an alt-tab view of my desks, and jump directly to them from there
1:36
And additionally, when I hover them, I can close that desk, or I can merge, hover that
1:41
combined with desk one. So you got a couple options there. And it also shows you the keyboard shortcut
1:47
if you can see that down there, shift, search, and three to go to desk three
1:52
So I'm gonna go to desk one and do that shortcut real quick, just to show you
1:56
Boom, jump right to desk three. So a myriad of ways to get around your virtual desk, but this is yet another option that's down there
2:03
especially if you're navigating with the mouse, it's super handy. And next up, we have self-share
2:07
which is part of nearby share, which is now called quick share, as of CES 2024
2:15
Clunky naming aside, this is just a quicker way for you to share from your own devices to your own devices
2:21
So this won't work, obviously, if I'm trying to share something to Joe's computer, for instance, but if I'm just needing to get a file
2:28
off of my phone to my Chromebook pretty quickly, and it's not a picture that's in my camera roll
2:33
because that's part of phone hub. If it's something else, a file, a link, anything
2:38
I can now pull up a nearby share. I'm gonna call it nearby share
2:42
until I see it all branded as quick share, because I don't see quick share anywhere just yet
2:46
So it's still nearby share in my book, but I'm gonna pull up on my phone here
2:51
I'm just gonna do a picture because that's the simplest kind of file to get to
2:55
It's a featured image photo I took. Again, I know this would be in the camera roll
2:59
I could just do it that way. That's how I would do it if I was doing this. But to show you here, I'm gonna hit share
3:05
and then I'm gonna click nearby share. And you can see my Chromebook has shown up right up here
3:11
When I click it, now you can watch the screen on the Chromebook. As soon as I click it, instead of the Chromebook saying
3:17
someone's trying to share something with you. Do you wanna accept this share? You can see, boom, it just popped in
3:22
I shared it and took it because it's me sharing to me. So there's no need to be like, do you sure you want this thing
3:28
Well, I was the one that shared it. Of course I want it. It just takes one more step out of the whole process
3:33
It doesn't do anything different. It's not like it's sharing it in some new way. There's new tech going on
3:37
It just takes out one of the steps that you used to have to do to go click and accept the actual nearby share
3:42
Next up, we wanna talk about a new feature that is in the app manager
3:46
So a lot of you may not jump into this section of the Chrome OS settings very often
3:52
but if you go to your settings, you go to your apps section here
3:56
and then go up to manage apps. I'm just gonna pick, we'll do a couple of these
4:00
So I know for sure Chrome Dev, I know that's an Android app
4:06
So if I click on it now at the very bottom down here, let me maximize this a little bit
4:10
The very bottom down here, you see app details and it tells you it is an Android app
4:15
It's from the Google Play Store and there's a link right here. I can click it and go to where you would download
4:22
or update that app in the Play Store. Tells me the app size, all that kind of stuff
4:26
what version it's on. So it's nice to be able to see sometimes if you're curious, like where did I get that app
4:30
Or how'd this thing get on here? Now you can go to your app settings to see that stuff
4:34
So let me pull one up. Chrome Canvas, for instance, is a web app
4:38
Web app, there you go. Pre-installed on your Chromebook. Tells you the storage and all that kind of stuff
4:43
Let me go to a web app that I installed. Web app installed from the Chrome browser
4:48
So it's like very specific. It's kind of cool. I'm the one, I installed that
4:52
I clicked it in the Chrome browser. It didn't come from the Play Store. So let me find, I think YouTube Music should show
4:59
Yeah, perfect. It's a web app installed from the Google Play Store. Again, I click the Google Play Store
5:04
It's gonna take me to the web app version, YouTube Music for Chromebook. So it's just one of those little helpful things
5:09
that if you need to know where an app came from, how you installed it or what it's doing on your Chromebook
5:14
you can go right here and see all those details. Next up are some new settings you've got
5:18
to customize your keyboard. Chrome OS has slowly but surely gotten better
5:22
at allowing you to kind of manipulate what you wanna do with these keyboard keys, but Chrome OS 120 takes that a little farther
5:27
So in your settings again, if you go under device, go under keyboard and then custom keyboard keys
5:33
you can see in here, even for like big keys. So we're talking like search, shift, control, alt
5:38
ones that honestly I don't know that you should change. You can actually change these things
5:43
And so I can change what I want my control key to be
5:47
I'm not completely sure why you'd wanna do that. The search key, maybe understand that you would
5:54
maybe wanna make that the assistant or something, but these are main keys
5:58
It's like saying, do you wanna change your up arrow? No, I don't wanna do that
6:02
So, but you can if you want to. The cooler part is down here at the bottom
6:06
So you've got some of these shortcuts where Google has changed some of these things over the years
6:11
So specifically like for me, I'm just forcing myself to relearn it because I'm like
6:15
hey, if this is the shortcut, I'm just gonna remap my brain. I'm about four days into it, still not taking
6:21
I've hit alt, backspace at least 150 times today. It's gonna take me the full three weeks
6:27
to retrain that habit, I guarantee this. But if I didn't wanna relearn it
6:31
if I didn't wanna mess with that, I could go back and change that to alt, backspace
6:35
and just stick with my habit. But I like to learn new stuff
6:39
So I'm actually gonna go and leave it at launcher and backspace because that's the new shortcut
6:45
and I'm gonna stick with it. But for stuff like page up, page down and home insert
6:49
if there's a different shortcut that would be better for your workflow, you can just change it now
6:54
And the F11 and F12 keys, which I almost would have to count on here
6:58
I would say, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10
7:02
I don't have those keys. So if you add a Chromebook, it's got some extra function keys
7:06
My F11 key is the power key. I don't think it's gonna let me remap that one, but they're disabled right now
7:11
but it would let me actually change those to a couple of different shortcuts as well
7:15
So nice addition here to help you just make the most of your Chromebook keyboard
7:20
And in a similar vein to this, this is a kind of smaller change
7:24
that I would kind of put with keyboard shortcuts. It's not specifically a keyboard shortcut
7:28
but if we go back to device, now we've got a touchpad. You can see right here
7:32
use touchpad and keyboard to right click. This is one of those things that I remember seeing in the repositories
7:37
like a year and a half ago or something like that and thinking like, that's a good idea
7:41
So now if I use the touchpad, right now I've got it set to launcher and click
7:46
So here's a two finger click on the screen. It brings up my right click menu
7:50
But if I hold launcher and just one finger click, it also does that. Now I could change that to alt if I wanted to
7:56
but I like the launcher. They call it, they tried to call it the everything key. I don't know if anybody ever calls it that
8:01
I like it as the everything key. It could be like the key that helps you do all kinds of other stuff
8:05
But regardless, I like to kind of use it. Now that I'm gonna start using it for backspace
8:10
or for delete, I'm gonna start using it for launcher and click when I remember that that's an option
8:16
Again, for me, I've become really accustomed to two finger clicking for a right click menu
8:20
So that's probably what I'm gonna stick to, but here's another option. All right, a couple more
8:24
And they are, to me, these are bigger, probably more useful than most of the other small features
8:31
that we've talked about so far. And the first one is the new media controls
8:35
And so to get those media controls, we definitely need to get into our flag
8:41
I'm gonna have you go to chrome://flags. And you can see, I've got a few turned on here
8:48
So global media controls, which we're gonna wanna look for. Let me blow this up a little bit
8:53
so it's easier for you to see. Global media control, start, stop from cast
8:57
and then global media control updated UI. Those are the important ones
9:03
And for now, I forgot to mention this earlier, the nearby sharing self-share is behind a flag
9:09
It was like a big announcement part of 120 in the Chrome OS community
9:14
So I would assume that's just gonna start working without this flag having to be turned on
9:19
or they'll do a server side thing or something. But for now, I couldn't get it to work
9:24
without turning that flag or forcing that flag to be enabled. They can force those flags to be enabled by default
9:29
So the default setting might start working. It might be working right now as you're watching this video
9:34
but for now, I did have to turn that one on. And so, yeah, we'll go ahead and talk about the other one
9:40
enable peripheral customization. That one is going to be with the next thing
9:46
I'm gonna show you. But for right now, for the global media controls, you need these two turned on
9:50
to see what it is I'm about to show you. And that is the new global media controls
9:56
So let me start YouTube music. I just gotta start a track here for it to..
10:03
Don't wanna get flagged here. So I'm not gonna play that. But once you start some music playback
10:10
your global media controls show up at the bottom, but now they look like this
10:14
which looks much more inline and cohesive with what we expect to see with Material You
10:20
So you can see it's got the same highlights as my other stuff. It's taking all the Material You design
10:26
And let me see if I turn this down. There we go. I'll just mute that and I can play it
10:31
You get the new squiggly line player. Let me slide this out
10:36
A little squiggly line player that we see in Android. So it's a nice look
10:40
You can obviously cast from these as well. But what I really like, especially when I'm on a dual monitor
10:45
and there's a lot going on, if I cast from any particular page or app
10:50
or anything like that, when I hit that cast button, instead of it bringing up that old looking white box
10:56
it now brings up this really awesome looking part of the media hub, our global media controls
11:03
and gives me all my casting options down here. And I can obviously click that and begin my cast session
11:08
But I really love the way this looks. It looks cohesive with the rest of the shelf
11:12
It makes sense with the rest of Chrome OS. And it's been working really well too
11:16
Like I'm not having as many issues with that cast menu kind of like disappearing
11:20
or not working. So I've really loved this. It's been around, I've been in beta for a little bit in 120
11:26
So I've had this for a little while and I've gotten used to it. And so when I first got into 120
11:30
it didn't have that before that flag was turned on or those two flags were turned on
11:34
I was like, oh, I gotta fix this. This looks too good. I don't wanna go back. So a really cool addition here
11:39
with the global media controls. And finally, but definitely, so what's the term
11:45
No, last but not least. Can I come up with something finally, but not flailing is coming to, I don't know
11:52
Finally, but not least, that's it. We've got the, we did a whole video on this
11:59
I'm not gonna go too far into depth here, but the ability to customize your mouse buttons
12:03
which I just love this so much. The flag we talked about before has to be turned on still
12:10
Hopefully like that and the media controls, like some of these things need to come out from behind flags
12:14
They're good, they're awesome. Everyone needs to have them. They just need to be a part of the Chrome OS experience
12:19
But we're gonna go into, back to device, mouse. And now you will see, this is the MX Master 3
12:27
No, it's not, I lied. It is the MX Anywhere 3. I can go down here to customize mouse buttons
12:34
I click it, I don't have any selected yet. I've gotten really used to having
12:38
so I've got two buttons here. That back button, I like that
12:42
That's a habit, I've had other mice use a back button like that
12:47
That is a habit, I'm not changing that. But the front one I never use. So I'm gonna click it, boom, you see it pop up on there
12:53
And I'm gonna tell it to do a dictation. That's been really cool
12:57
For this video actually, that's what I've been using. And by the way, if you choose to do that
13:02
you still gotta turn dictation on. I had somebody comment, well it didn't work until I turned it on
13:07
We've gotta make sure dictation's actually on. So we'll just go and search dictation
13:14
Make sure that it's on, it is. Sometimes you gotta turn it off and on for it to work again
13:20
There we go, we're good to go. So let's, I don't know, hello YouTube
13:25
Super handy, it's just really nice to be able to click a button and just talk to your Chromebook
13:29
It's really nice. It's even better, I don't think I've got Assistant turned on here
13:34
What I've really enjoyed, make sure my Assistant's turned on. Sure, why not
13:42
Do not want, hey, on, good, good, good. So now I can go in here, I don't have to go there
13:48
I'm sorry, I can do this, shortcut, dictation. What's the weather like today
13:55
And yes, I know I can go up there and click the microphone, but it's just nice to just have a button to click
13:59
and be able to speak, do search terms. There's sometimes I got a whole sentence in my head
14:04
and it's faster for me to say it instead of type it. I love it
14:08
But you can set it to overview, which is kind of nice and kind of helpful too
14:11
But the main point here is you can really customize your mouse to fit you. And if you got one of those crazy mice
14:17
that has like 20 buttons all over it, if you wanna learn them all and create new habits
14:21
you can set them to all, do whatever you want. You can even do key combos with it too
14:24
So if there's a key combination that you like and you wanna map that to that button
14:29
you're free to do so there too. But again, we did a whole video kind of outlining all the possibilities with this
14:34
We'll link that down in the description as well. But yeah, really, really big update
14:41
It's hidden and not something that's in your face, but just a fantastic user-facing thing
14:48
I think that can help people get a lot more productive with their Chromebooks. But before we go, one more thing I actually came across
14:55
not too long before we're filming this video. It's a feature that I came across in December
15:01
And I was like, I wonder if it made it down to stable with 120 and it did, it's behind the flag
15:06
You have to go to enable faster split screen setup. You can see here on the screen
15:11
but I'm gonna enable that and restart. And what this allows is when you go into your over
15:17
or when you go into a window snap, however you wanna do that, whether you wanna drag the window to one side or the other
15:23
you know, there's all these different ways, right? You can drag it to one side, drag it to another
15:28
You can use the resize button up at the top and do all these different splits, all that kind of stuff
15:33
The point is what it does, let me open up some other random stuff here
15:40
There's the files and we'll do a squoosh window. What this does is when I go to split screen
15:46
in any way, shape, or form, instead of just sitting there, the rest of the windows organize themselves
15:51
in the overview mode. And so they're ready for you to go, oh, I wanted this
15:55
Boom, I wanted those two things next to each other. It's stealing a bit from not just Chrome OS's tablet UI
16:01
but like Android and iPad and all those kind of do this on tablets
16:05
That's like, well, if you want a split screen, clearly you're wanting something else over here. You just don't want blank screen
16:10
I'd say 99 times out of 100, that's what you want. This feature allows that
16:15
It's super cool. That's another one that I started using, I don't know, a month ago or so
16:20
And I just, I've gotten used to it being there. So I've got to stay on a version of Chrome OS
16:25
and turn on some flags in order to keep it because I really, really like using it on a daily basis
16:29
For real this time though, that's it for Chrome OS 120. And that's it for this video
16:35
If you liked it, give us a thumbs up, head down there, hit that subscribe button and be sure to ring the notification icon as well
16:41
If you'd like to be alerted when we make future videos, just like this one. Till next time, we'll see you. ♪♪
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