Google Chrome

Chrome OS’ new Files UI goes live in Canary, ‘Smart Text Selection’ from Android incoming

Ben Schoon | Jul 17 2018 - 11:05 am PT

Google has been slowly solving pain points of Chrome OS for a while now, and integrating new features from Android at the same time. Now, two big changes are incoming.

Firstly, the new file app interface we reported on last month is now going live for users. Google first showed off the refreshed files interface with Chrome OS 69, and it’s a huge improvement over what was previously available. The refreshed UI cleans things up by splitting up files into categories.

For now, it’s still experimental and is only live in the Canary channel as François Beaufort points out on Google+. Regardless, we’re excited to see it land in a future stable release. It really does seem like a massive improvement.

Along with this, Chrome OS is also picking up Android Oreo’s Smart Text Selection as Chrome Story has spotted. A new flag in the latest Canary channel update hints at the feature’s arrival, but it’s not active just yet. When it is live, it will presumably work similarly to how it does on Android. There, a long-press intelligently selects bits of text such as an address or phone number, also offering a shortcut to an app that can use that information.