Google has officially released the Phone Hub functionality for Chrome OS. As a result, there is now better integration with your Android smartphone when you connect your Chromebook to it. But how exactly do you do that? We explain it in this article.
The Chrome OS, the operating system for Chromebooks, has been around for ten years. Google is celebrating that with an extensive update that is now available. The update includes the Phone Hub. This is a new tool that ensures that your Chromebook and your Android smartphone work together even better than is currently the case.
Integration between devices
The new functionality is important to Google’s ecosystem. It gives Android and Chrome OS users the same integration that users of the Apple ecosystem have been using for years (through the connection between iPhone and Mac). Within the Apple ecosystem, you can copy text from one device to another or continue in an app while switching devices. The Phone Hub is not that extensive, unfortunately, but Google is taking a step in the right direction.
Despite this, the Phone Hub’s list of features on Chrome OS is quite long. For example, you can respond to incoming messages from your Chromebook, check the battery and signal strength of your Android smartphone, quickly turn on a hotspot, find your phone if you have lost it and activate or deactivate silent mode. You can also directly open tabs within the Chrome browser that you previously had open on your smartphone.
Link Chrome OS via Phone Hub
That all sounds very nice, but how do you set up the Phone Hub? Fortunately, that is quite easy. You go to the Quick Settings. You will find it at the bottom right. That is the area where you will find the clock. Then click on it gear icon. You will then be sent to the settings. Then go to the section for Connected devices. There you will find a button with which you can start the setup (in English this is Set up).
In the next screen, select the Android smartphone you want to pair. Then click on Accept and continue. Now you are supposed to enter your Google account password on both devices so that Google can make sure you own it. If you have done all that, you are in fact already done. Click on the button to continue.
Additional functions
If you did everything right – we assume you have – you will now see an icon of a mobile phone at the bottom right, on the Chrome OS start bar. When you tap on it, you immediately get access to some functions that are available thanks to the Phone Hub.
Do you want more functions? Then go back to the overview of connected devices. Click on the linked Android smartphone and you will see what else is possible thanks to the connection. If you want to disconnect your phone for some reason, you can. At the bottom of the page, click on the button for disconnecting.