Starting today, Chromebook Plus users get a bunch of new AI-powered features and benefits that make the most of the more powerful hardware. You can write and edit your work with Help Me Write, interact with the app with Google Gemini directly from your desktop, and edit your photos.
For now, most of these features are exclusive to new and existing Plus users (so if you’ve got your eye on something like Acer’s new Chromebook Plus model, this is a further enticement to get you to buy one) , but there are still a few features available for the best Chromebooks.
So here’s an overview of what to expect for your Chromebook, whether it’s a Plus model or not.
Twin Premium
Perhaps the most exciting benefit for Chromebook Plus devices is a free one-year subscription to Google’s Gemini Premium, which encourages users to try out Gemini if they haven’t already, and use it indefinitely in their daily lives. If you opened your Chromebook Plus and suddenly had a year of premium generative AI access, wouldn’t you want to experiment with it?
You also get a free Google One AI Premium subscription, which extends your Gemini Advanced subscription to Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail. You get a 2TB storage bubble, again a nice deal for Chromebook users who will mainly be working with Google apps online.
Help Me Write is an equally useful tool to throw into the mix, especially for students and bloggers. According to the official blog post, this is a Chromebook Plus exclusive feature (for now) that lets you right-click on selected text to make changes to your writing, powered by AI. You can generate text from scratch, rewrite existing work, make something shorter or completely change the tone of a piece.
Generative AI background
Your operating system on Chromebook Plus also gets some new features that let you customize your device. With the help of AI, you can come up with some new desktop wallpapers and choose the one that suits you best. From what we can tell, the images are of quite high quality and include suggestions such as natural backgrounds, lettering, fantasy dreamscapes and more.
What about everyone else?
If you don’t currently have a Chromebook Plus and don’t want to invest in one right now, don’t worry: regular Chromebook owners might not get the AI goodies above, but they do have a few other useful new features. look forward to.
You’ll soon be able to set up new Chromebooks using just your Android phone. Scanning a QR code with your phone will instantly share your Wi-Fi passwords and Google account information with your new device.
Thanks to a layout change, you can also access Google Tasks with a single click on the date in the bottom right corner of your home screen, making it easy to access your list of tasks. This is certainly a pretty handy change, allowing you to keep track of your tasks no matter what you’re doing without having to mess around.
Google’s blog post delves into some other bits and pieces, like AI-powered hands-free control with facial and gesture tracking, and a focus mode (“do not disturb” functionality), which are pretty cool features I’m excited to see on Chromebook.
Overall, it seems like a good day to be a Chromebook owner, and especially the owner (or future owner) of a Chromebook Plus. We bet Google has many more features in store for users in the future, and several ways to make the most of AI time-savers on its laptops.