Where is Google’s promised ‘Help me write’ feature for Chromebooks?

I’ve talked about this before, but it’s really getting frustrating to see new versions of ChromeOS roll out time and time again with new features and updates that simply aren’t actually there for regular users. From things hidden behind feature flags to features flat-out not being available after they’ve been announced, there’s an aggravating pattern happening with Chromebooks right now that isn’t really a good look for anyone involved.

‘Help me write’ is vaporware on Chromebooks

And this issue is never more prevalent than when it involves a hotword feature that is trendy and part of what is supposed to make Chromebook Plus special. We are of course referring to the new AI-infused ‘Help me write’ feature that is already available in the Chrome Browser on other platforms, but not on Chromebooks.

I know it is feature parity like this that is one of the big reasons we’re hoping to see Lacros arrive soon to split the Chrome browser from the underlying ChromeOS, but even with Lacros enabled right now in the latest version of ChromeOS (beta, dev, and canary channels), the ‘Help me write’ feature is still non existent for Chrome on a Chromebook.

And I’m not even miffed about not having it at my disposal: I’m just tired of promised features that don’t arrive until weeks or months after they’ve been proposed. It’s a bad look for Chromebooks and it’s a sour taste for new users that may be elated by their fast, sleek new Chromebook and it’s 4-week update cycle only to find that some of the new features that come with those updates never actually ship on time.

This one stings a bit more than usual

Even worse with ‘Help me write’ is the fact that in October of last year, Google made AI one of the big selling points of Chromebook Plus and apart from having 2 of the 3 “AI” features that all other platforms now enjoy via the Chrome Browser, there’s no indication that the system-wide AI tools Google promised 6 months ago are any closer to actually showing up.

For people like me, it makes defending the greatness of Chromebooks and Google’s decision to fragment the ecosystem with Chromebook Plus a very hard job. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until I stop covering Chromebooks: announce new features only when you are ready to ship them, not weeks or months ahead of time.

And with ‘Help me write’, we now have a feature that had its genesis at the fall Chromebook Plus event and was made out to be a big deal for ChromeOS. Now that feature is part of the Chrome browser and available on every platform except Chromebooks. It’s something that needs to get fixed ASAP and hopefully as time goes on, it doesn’t happen again. With 4-week updates, there’s always the opportunity to put out a new feature in the next update with no reason to tell users that ChromeOS version X will have it if it is actually only a 50/50 shot that it will actually arrive. Google needs to do better.