ChromeOS Just 'Copied' One of Windows 11's Best Features

 One such feature is Snap Layouts, which allows grouping different windows within a session and improves multitasking capabilities.

Google seems to have taken inspiration from Snap Layouts to develop a similar feature and decided to bring it to ChromeOS. The latest update to ChromeOS in the Stable channel, ChromeOS 128, now comes with a new Snap groups feature, which allows users to group windows and gives a similar experience to Windows 11.

On the official release notes page, the ChromeOS development team explained how this feature works as follows:

Snap groups on ChromeOS

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

ChromeOS Just 'Copied' One of Windows 11's Best Features Picture 1

Snap groups aren't the only additions the new update brings. Several other new features like isolated web apps (IWA), privacy-related improvements, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR), among others, have also been introduced.

Google added IWA to ChromeOS to give it better protection against server attacks. Instead of being hosted on a live web server and loaded over HTTPS, these apps are packaged into Web Bundles, signed by their developers.

The ChromeOS team added that in this initial release, IWA can only be installed using the new IsolatedWebAppInstallForceList policy⁠ on enterprise-managed ChromeOS devices.

Additionally, the ChromeOS camera app has Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that allows text extraction from captured images with the help of an ML-powered text extraction service.

Marvin Fry

Update 07 September 2024