Newsletter
Chrome OS 64 is introducing a VPN enabler for Google Play Apps, which should help bring a little extra privacy to the platform for users who engage with Android apps through their Chromebooks as opposed to on smartphones and tablets. While VPNs are nothing new and could easily have been accessed for general browsing on Chrome OS before now, this specific new function to enable VPNs for Google Play Apps sounds like it will be a native VPN feature that you can enable for when using specific apps that are trying to connect to the internet, thus allowing you to connect privately from a designated location like any other VPN. Google’s Chrome Releases blog post that talks about the new features coming in Chrome OS 64 doesn’t elaborate on how the VPN will work so there’s not much detail on it at the moment, and likely won’t be until more users get it loaded onto their Chromebooks.
In addition to the new VPN enabler Chrome OS 64 is also going to introduce the ability for Chromebooks that have a 360-degree hinge to take screenshots faster than they could have before. Much like you’d be able to on smartphones or tablets, pressing the power button and volume down button simultaneously on a Chromebook with this type of hinge, presumably because it can flip around to be held and used like a tablet, will take a screenshot of whatever is currently on the display. With all of the changes to Chromebooks and Chrome OS to make usability with Android as seamless as possible, this should make sense as this quick and handy screenshot method is likely familiar to most or all Android device users.
For the most part this new version release is about improvements and fixing some of the bugs that users had been experiencing prior to now. For instance, Google has improved the performance of the lockscreen, as well as the performance of the Android Container Auto Update function thanks to some optimizations that have been made to it so it works more smoothly. Google also notes that they improved the touchscreen pairing settings. Chrome OS 64 should already be headed out to most Chrome OS devices, though it is worth keeping in mind that some users may not see the update yet. Google says that the update will be rolling out to devices over the “next several days,” so if it doesn’t show up today expect it to come by the middle or end of next week.