ChromeOS Version 117 With Material You Design, New Features Out Now

Google has started rolling out ChromeOS 177 to eligible Chromebook devices. The new software includes Material You design and brings tweaks across elements such as Quick Settings, notifications, battery charging controls, colour accessibility settings, and more. The update adds new rectangular buttons for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other settings. It also lets users find the specifications of their Chromebook through Launcher. The new software also adds an Adaptive Charging feature for improved battery life. With ChromeOS 17, users can search for GIFs in the emoji picker as well.

In a new blog post on September 26, Google announced the launch of ChromeOS 117 for Chromebooks. It comes with Google’s Material You makeover and Quick Settings display controls like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Nearby Share, Cast Screen, VPN, Screen Capture, and Do Not Disturb in a grid layout instead of previous small circles. The latest update also brings a new notification panel on the bottom right of the screen that allows users to access new messages, emails, and other alerts from apps.

Google also added improvements to the Calender that show any upcoming meetings and lets users join them directly through a button. The update brings dynamic colour theming to Chromebook devices based on the shades of wallpaper. With this functionality, accent colours will adapt to the light and dark modes. It can be accessed from the Wallpaper and Style app by right-clicking on the desktop.

In the new software, users can find the specifications of Chromebooks like the CPU and RAM quickly, through a search in Launcher. It also brings a microphone privacy indicator on the bottom right status area to inform users when apps are using the microphone or camera of the device.

The new ChromeOS also includes an Adaptive Charging feature for battery health. It can be enabled by heading to Settings > Device > Power and once enabled, this functionality will slow down charging when the battery hits 80 percent capacity. It will let the battery reach 100 percent charge at a slower speed. It also allows users to listen to audio from an Android app and the web at the same time without pausing the other.

Other significant upgrades available in the ChromeOS 117 updates include GIF support in the emoji picker, time time-lapse video recording in the Camera app, improved Vietnamese Telex, and VNI input method experience and more.

The ChromeOS 117 update is expected to reach all eligible devices automatically over-the-air (OTA). However, Chromebook users can manually check if the update is available on their devices by navigating to Settings > About ChromeOS > Check for updates.