This needed Chromebook feature could tempt me back to Pixel

It’s no secret that I’ve long since left the Pixel community for Samsung. What started with a move to the excellent Galaxy S23 has culminated in my having the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in my pocket for a solid 5 months at this point and there’s no urge in me to change to anything else in the near term. I love this phone quite a bit, and the added utility I’ve found in the larger, inner screen will be tough to ever get away from at this point.

But there’s a feature lurking for ChromeOS that likely will only launch on Pixel phones when it does arrive, and it has the potential to really tempt me back to the Pixel side of the smartphone wars. While I still don’t think it would initially be enough to sway me, this one feature could be the start of some even bigger phone/Chromebook integrations that could make users like me reconsider picking up a Pixel once again down the road.

Easy call integration

We talked about phone call integration coming to Chromebooks two and a half years ago, and not much has changed on that front. While I feel like the tech is most definitely there to make this a thing, Google has not delivered on this change as of yet. But it is still likely coming (nothing shows up as abandoned in the Chromium Gerrit right now), and if it were to arrive, it would make me insanely envious.

I’d love to be able to rely on Phone Hub when at the desk to keep an eye on all my phone’s random notifications while it sits on the charger. Most of my main ways of communicating are already covered with a web app like WhatsApp, Discord, and Messages, but phone calls still have no way to ping my Chromebook to let me know that someone is trying to reach me.

With App Streaming, this should be 100% doable and would allow users to not only take calls, but make them on their devices as well. And if it showed up for Pixel only, it would definitely tempt me away from Samsung even though I’d only use it here and there.

If Phone Hub and App Streaming worked this well together, I’d have a hard time not wanting that integration in my life – even at the expense of potentially walking away from my beloved Galaxy Z Fold 5. The other option would be for Google to finally grant flagship Samsung phones the same connection authority as Pixel phones on Chromebooks since the two companies have become so chummy in the last year or so. A guy can hope, right?

Either way, I think the ability to make and take phone calls directly on my Chromebook would be pretty amazing, and I suppose I don’t understand why this isn’t a thing already. I’ll be doing more digging on this – of that you can be certain. And if I find anything new, I’ll let you know. For now, I’m hopeful this feature is on the roadmap and a tad fearful of what it might mean for me from a phone buying/selling perspective if it is, in fact, on the way.