Google makes Chromebooks better entertainment machines with the addition of spatial audio
Google plans to bring digital audio to Chromebooks, making these accessible laptops better devices for watching and listening to your favorite media.
The introduction of spatial audio could increase the prestige of the best Chromebooks and make them a better competitor to Windows laptops and MacBooks for users who want to enjoy their laptops outside of work. It should be noted that not all content supports spatial audio, so don’t expect old movies to sound better.
Spatial audio essentially allows your device to change the way audio is sent to your headphones, giving you more depth of sound – in a sense, emulating proper 7.1 surround sound. So being able to watch movies and TV shows on your Chromebook and take advantage of the newly implemented spatial audio will certainly make your downtime a lot more enjoyable – the lack of spatial audio in ChromeOS has previously been a point of contention for some users, who considered it as a key feature in Windows, Android and macOS.
Audio all around!
According to 9to5Google, the feature appeared in a recent code change in the Chromium repository, locked behind a chrome://flags code flag, and when enabled, a new option appears in the Settings app. Of course, that doesn’t mean the feature is ready to be rolled out. It’s not currently available in ChromeOS Canary, the operating system’s most experimental beta channel, but we’ll likely see a wide launch in the near future.
It looks like Chromebook users have a lot to look forward to in terms of major updates and new features, including one central hub to find the best apps for ChromeOS and a nice new default font!
Overall, I’m very happy to see Google making an effort to bring Chromebooks up to the standards of other productivity machines, like the best Apple MacBooks or even the best Windows laptops on the market. While Chromebooks have an excellent reputation as financially accessible and convenient machines to work on, the addition of new features and updates is one step closer to better laptop experiences for all ChromeOS users!