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Chrome OS ‘Ambient Mode’ could bring Chromecast screensavers to your Chromebook

Google’s Chrome OS is maturing in a lot of ways, but one simple feature that it totally lacks is a screensaver. That may soon change, though, as a commit strongly hints that Chrome OS may be adopting the Chromecast backdrop images for a new screensaver-like “Ambient Mode” for Chromebooks.

For years now, Google has supported a gallery of beautiful images on Chromecast that pop up when the device isn’t in use. The same gallery appears on Android TV and Google Assistant smart display devices when they switch to an idle mode. Now, it appears that Google is preparing an “Ambient Mode” for Chrome OS which will also show these images on a Chromebook.

First pointed out by Chrome Story, a commit mentions adding the “basic framework” for showing photos in this new ambient mode. Another commit further details that this would pull wallpapers from the “backdrop” gallery that Chromecast and Android TV also pull from.

Unfortunately, these commits don’t guarantee that you’ll see these screensavers on your Chromebook. It’s possible this could just be used for a demo mode in retail shops, or with the “kiosk mode.” For the time being, we’ll just have to wait and see if this shows up in a future Canary release.

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