Google has been working for years to provide better integration between Android phones and Chromebooks with features like yours Telephone hub, but with its new “Push” feature, Google seems closer to providing a suitable alternative to Apple’s Handoff feature for Macs and iPhones.
After being noticed at the first preview of Android 12 in February, as part of its Insight APK series, 9to5Google saw a recent update that sheds new light on a promising upcoming feature aimed at Google phones and laptops.
According to 9to5Google, Push will be introduced as a new button on Android 12 that will allow you to “use your phone apps directly on [a Chromebook] when you’re at home, ”so you can switch devices more easily without wasting time figuring out where you left it.
On Chrome OS devices, the transfer of Android phones will be managed using a new feature codenamed “Eche” that supports Android phone replica applications. Unfortunately, the inclusion of a string (com.google.pixel.exo) suggests that the new Push feature may be unique to Google’s Pixel phones, at least initially.
9to5Google found that there are currently two ways to send a phone app to a Chromebook: open the Recent menu in Android 12 and manually press the Push button, or click one of the duplicate notifications that appear in Chrome OS, eliminating the need to touch your phone.
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However, instead of running the new app natively on your Chromebook, Push seems to work by streaming a video channel from your phone to your Chromebook, which seems a little strange considering that most Chromebooks already have the ability to run Android apps. natively to Chrome OS.
That said, if Google wanted to save the current app status on your phone to send this data to your Chromebook and reopen it there, 9to5Google says that this process may require developers to make major changes to the way their apps are coded, which could make the feature much harder to implement across millions of Android apps.
It’s unclear when Google’s new Push feature will be officially available for Android phones and Chromebooks. But it is rumored that Google is preparing a large showcase of products for Pixel 6 and other Google devices this fall (most likely in October, if previous events are indicative), there’s a good chance Push will be released before the end of the year.