Chrome OS may soon sync your WiFi passwords across devices

One of the best things about Chrome OS is how easy Google has made it to switch from one Chromebook to another, thanks to the variety of backup and sync options. The Chrome OS team appears to be improving this experience in the near future by also syncing WiFi passwords.

As it stands, Google Chrome can sync a variety of useful bits of information between your signed-in devices, including tabs, account passwords, extensions, addresses, and payment methods. These are all handy for having a consistent browsing experience between devices.

A new flag, discovered in the Chromium Gerrit source code management, aims to use Chrome’s sync capabilities to also sync WiFi passwords you’ve used on Chrome OS.

Sync Wi-Fi network configurations

Enables the option to sync Wi-Fi network configurations with Chrome Sync.

This would, without a doubt, make setting up a new Chrome OS device or one that’s just been power washed (factory reset) a much smoother experience. Of course, you’ll still need to enter one WiFi password to get your device online to connect to your Google Account. After that, Chrome OS should be able to sync the remaining passwords.

Interestingly, while this feature is currently designed to be limited to Chrome OS, a Googler casually mentions the possibility of this WiFi information sync one day extending to Android devices. This could make for a more unified experience of syncing from Android to Chrome OS and vice-versa, beyond all the other bits of info the two can already share.

Things discovered in Chromium source code do not always pan out to become proper features, however. Google has even attempted once before to create WiFi password syncing for Chrome OS, back in 2014, but this effort fizzled out for unknown reasons. So, as always, take these findings with a grain of salt.

Should everything go smoothly, though, Chrome OS may be able to sync WiFi passwords by version 77 at the earliest.