Chrome OS 99 rolling out: Faster desk creation, improved palm rejection & Nearby Share

Abner Li | Mar 4 2022 - 5:28 pm PT

With Google now releasing major Chromebook updates every four weeks, some releases are more significant than others. Chrome OS 99 adds a slew of convenient features that will start rolling out today.

Chrome OS 99 improves the performance of palm rejection on touchscreen-equiped devices by better looking at multiple fingers.

When in Overview mode, you can now drag a window to the top of the screen to create a new desk. Meanwhile, version 98 last month introduced a Shift + Search + 1 (through 8) shortcut that lets you quickly switch to open spaces. Up to eight desks can be created and navigated with this keyboard shortcut.

With Chrome OS 99, Nearby Share adds background scanning so that your Chromebook will tell you when someone in close proximity is sharing. This means you don’t have to enter high visibility mode first, with this being the experience found on Android devices since launch.

Google has reimplemented the Files app as a System Web App (SWA) after years of it being a legacy Chrome App. There should be no change in what functionality is available.

The Camera app (in the Video tab) adds a mode to turn five-second videos into shareable GIFs. In a similar vein, Chrome OS 98 last month introduced settings to the screenshot bottom panel that lets you specify where captures are saved. The default is Downloads, but you can now choose a different folder.