Google's ChromeOS just copied one of Windows 11's best features

Most people would agree that Windows 11 is far from flawless. For example, just today, we reported a weird underlying abnormality that can cause a perfectly configured setup to lose a lot of performance for no apparent reason.

However, all is not bad, and there are plenty of useful features that can get overlooked. One such feature is Snap Layouts, which helps group windows and improve multitasking. Neowin was fairly impressed when we first looked at it back in 2022, and improvements have been made since then.

Google has decided to take inspiration and has added a similar feature in its latest ChromeOS update. The latest version in the Stable channel, ChromeOS 128, has a new Snap groups feature that allows grouping windows similar to how the feature works on Windows 11.

On its official release notes page, the ChromeOS team explains how the feature works:

Snap groups on ChromeOS

 

Group windows on one screen with Snap groups. When you pair two windows for split-screen display, ChromeOS now forms a Snap group. As a Snap group, you can bring the windows back into focus together, resize them simultaneously, and move them both as a group.

 

This is not the sole addition the new update brings. More new features like isolated web apps (IWA), improvements related to privacy, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR), among others, have also been added.

Google has added IWAs in order to provide better protection against server attacks. Instead of being hosted on live web servers and fetched over via HTTPS, these apps are packaged into Web Bundles, signed by their developers.

The ChromeOS team adds that in this initial release, IWAs are only installable using a new policy IsolatedWebAppInstallForceList⁠ on enterprise-managed ChromeOS devices.

Moving on, the ChromeOS camera app has gained Optical Character Recognition (OCR) which enables text extraction from captured images with the help of an ML-powered text extraction service.

The rest of the changes are given below:

• Geolocation privacy controls

• ChromeOS privacy control reminders

• Pinned notifications on ChromeOS

• Auto Gain Control enabled by default

• Access Point Name (APN) management

• Admin-configurable site search

• Data processor mode: EU-wide rollout

• Store aggregated vitals data with one-year retention

You can view the release notes on the support document here on ChromeOS' official website.

Source

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