ChromeOS contextual widgets: One of the Pixel phone’s best features, contextual information on the home screen, may be coming to Chromebooks.
9to5Google observed Google building a “glanceable” Chrome OS widget (opens in new tab). Evidence was found in a Chromium Gerrit, along with a record of the feature.
Google is working on a clock and a weather tile, according to code in Chromium Gerrit. You can organise widgets in a grid so they occupy one tile, like on Android phones. The weather tile appears to be based on Chrome OS’ screensaver, however some design and layout changes are likely due to Chromebooks’ larger screens.
The design draught isn’t public, so we don’t know Google’s plans for Glanceables, but a weather tile and a clock appear likely. ChromeOS should allow you to snap-position widgets in a grid, with each glanceable taking up at least one tile. Google may create new layouts, styles, and widgets to make the most of ChromeOS devices’ (typically larger) screen real estate.
Unlike Windows, macOS, and other Linux distros, ChromeOS just shows your wallpaper. Glanceables may be the first OS addition to use blank space.
Don’t take a Gerrit listing for granted, though — new features can take a long time to work through the development pipeline if they make it through at all. If and when Google brings Glanceables to ChromeOS, we hope they’re as useful as At a Glance on Android, much less a Pixel.