If you’ve ever had a Chromecast, you’re probably familiar with that array of gorgeous wallpapers that show up when the device is idle. Google calls that “Backdrop,” and new code suggests that it could be coming to the company’s Chrome browser at some point…
There have been some hints lately that Google is bringing some new visual features to Chrome’s “New Tab” page, including custom backgrounds. As an extension of that, “Backdrop” could be arriving as well.
Chrome Story recently discovered a code change which hints at this feature’s arrival. The code specifically mentions users being able to select from a “rich set of wallpapers” which are “obtained from the Backdrop wallpaper.” Google is clearly calling out Chromecast’s library here by capitalizing “Backdrop.”
Adds service to get wallpaper collections to display on NTP background. Creates a service that uses SimpleURLLoader to asynchronously request wallpaper collections from the Backdrop service, and makes them available to the Local NTP in a javascript variable.
The Chrome Desktop New Tab Page background selector displays a rich set of wallpapers for users to choose from. Each wallpaper belongs to a collection (e.g. Arts, Landscape etc.). The list of all available collections is obtained from the Backdrop wallpaper service.
Of course, this feature probably won’t arrive exactly how it shows on Chromecast. Rather, it seems most likely that Google will give users the option to pick one wallpaper to go on that page, or give them the option to cycle through on a daily basis or even every time a new tab is opened. It’s largely unclear at the moment, but Google clearly has something up its sleeve here.
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