Back at CES 2022, Google revealed how app streaming was going to change how your android phone and Chromebook interact. It was believed that a simple mirroring process was involved and while that is somewhat true, it actually appears to be more a case of your android phone streaming an app to your Chromebook instead.
The feature appears to be entering the final stages before release as the ‘Cross-Device Services’ stub has appeared on the Google Play store, although it is only currently downloadable on Google Pixel smartphones that are on Android 13 or later. Once fully available, it is expected that all android phones will have access to the feature, provided it’s meets the minimum requirements which are currently unknown.
It should be noted that the app streaming capabilities are not yet live, but they must surely be on the horizon given the nature of the update. While we would love to assume that this update appearing on the Play Store suggests that we are in the final countdown, the limited rollout might actually prove that we’re still some way off for other android devices.
While they are still years behind the developments that Apple has made, Google appears to finally be delivering on it’s promise of having it’s devices act like a family. This is a huge step forward and will feel like a real reward for those who have committed to the Google ecosystem of products.
Upon a full rollout, you should be able to stream your android phone’s screen over to your Chromebook or ChromeOS desktop PC. It will be fully interactable meaning you can reply to messages, interact with notifications and just generally use most features of your phone through the widgets that appear on screen. In keeping with Google’s dedication to ChromeOS support and integration, you will also be able to stream your phone to the Google Chrome browser on Windows or MacOS but it’s not as natively functional compared to a Chromebook or ChromeOS desktop.