The exclusive Chromebook Plus wallpapers need to expand or go away

Back about a year and a half ago when Chromebook Plus began, the features that actually launched were quite sparse. We complained about it back then, and by the following spring in 2024, all the promised AI bits and pieces were largely delivered to the platform in a way that truly helped Plus models stand out a bit from the rest.

One holdover of that slightly awkward transition phase, however, are the remnants of Chromebook Plus exclusive wallpapers and screensavers that were part of the only new features initially introduced. They were fun for a minute, but alongside the AI-generated wallpapers, they feel out of place and flat-out weird now.

For starters, there are still only 2 “exclusive” wallpapers available. The exact same two that have been there for about 17 months, and it just feels a tad off-putting that when you go to select a wallpaper, you get a little nudge to try out these exclusive wallpapers and screensavers that are beyond old news at this point. There’s even language that says “You now have access to new wallpapers and screen savers.”

Then we have to talk about the AI-generated wallpapers that are still pre-chosen, hand-held options that make decently interesting wallpapers that are still terrible to look at on any screen of a higher resolution than 1080p. These wallpapers were cool when the end goal was to allow users to simply type a prompt and create a background, but we’ve never graduated to that and the resulting images for now are still basically unusable on a QHD or 4K display.

Am I complaining? Sure, but all I’m saying is, if you aren’t going to update these areas of the OS, just get rid of them. It’s super awkward for ChromeOS to still be showing me the option to use exclusive wallpapers, screensavers, and AI-generated wallpapers when none of these options have been touched since they were announced.

I think a massive collection of Chromebook Plus wallpapers and an open-ended AI-generated library of wallpapers would be awesome, but what we have right now is anything but that. Instead, this feels like the ChromeOS team is far more focused on other stuff and has left a few initial features to die on the line. And if that is the case, they just need to be done away with. It’s a tad bit embarrasing.