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Coming to Chromebook: You May Be Able to Answer Your Phone

By Laura Tucker
Chromebook Answer Your Phone Featured

Historically, one of the more attractive features of Chromebooks has been the lower price. But it may become more competitive by adding new features. A Chrome developer site shows Chromebook devices may be picking up the ability to answer your phone.

Also read: Sales of Chromebooks Double in 2020 Due to Pandemic

Answering and Making Calls May Be New Chromebook Feature

Chromebooks aren’t always as cheap as they once were. While you could pay just a few hundred dollars before and still can, you can also wind up spending much more, like $1000 more. And if you’re going to pony up that kind of cash, you want it to be worth it, meaning it needs to have similar features to what you’d find on a Windows or Mac computer.

One new feature that Chromebook devices may be picking up is an ability to answer your phone. If you’re on your Chromebook working, monitoring your social media, or streaming your favorite binge-worthy content and a call comes in, you won’t have to root around for your phone – you can answer it right from your Chromebook.

Chromebook Answer Your Phone Working

You may be reading this and wondering what the big fuss is, as Windows and Mac computers already allow you to make and receive calls. But that’s why Chromebooks need to add that ability – especially if they are commanding a heftier price.

An “add feature’ flag was seen on the Chromium Gerrit. It said, “This flag is to enable the Incoming/Outgoing call notification feature.” While it may seem as if it would only be handling notifications, further in, the flag said it “enables the incoming/outgoing call feature in Phone Hub.”

Chromebooks already allow you to use Phone Hub to view your Android notifications. Now it appears you’ll be able to answer the calls as well and place outgoing calls.

Availability

The Phone Hub feature supports Android 5.1 or later, but it’s not known from the flag which Android versions and which models would support this feature. A new software, Google’s “Eche,” is rumored to mirror Pixel smartphones on Chromebooks.

Chromebook Answer Your Phone Desktop

An ability to answer your Android phone on your Chromebook just seems like a likely union, with each being a Google product. And the company did announce at this year’s I/O keynote that Phone Hub would be allowing you to view recent photos on your computer. The incoming/outgoing calls ability would be a natural progression.

Perhaps Google will clear this up when it launches the Pixel 6 on October 19.

Looking to do more on your Chromebook? Learn how to take screenshots, use Microsoft Office for free, and install Steam.

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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