The multitasking experience in ChromeOS is now a lot more organized, thanks to the new Snap Groups feature.
Key Takeaways
- Google has introduced Snap Groups to ChromeOS, allowing users to make split-screen groups appear as single apps for organized multitasking.
- The Snap Groups feature is available in ChromeOS 121.0.6122.0 behind a flag called Enable Snap Groups feature.
- Currently, the limitation of ChromeOS is that you can only use up to two apps in Split screen mode, which is also true for Snap Groups.
It’s a long time ago that Google started incorporating Android features into ChromeOS, the recent example being the introduction of the Material You design system to ChromeOS 117. Attempts are still underway to bring the best of Android to ChromeOS — being able to use Split screen groups as apps in ChromeOS is the latest result of Google’s ongoing efforts.
As first spotted by X (formerly Twitter) users @cr_c2cv, Google has introduced a new feature called Snap Groups to ChromeOS, allowing users to make split-screen groups appear as apps. Instead of managing individual apps, you’ll be able to switch between groups of split-screen apps. For example, you can have a group that consists of apps for entertainment and another one that includes apps related to research work. This way, it eliminates the situation where you need to rearrange or resize apps each time and makes switching between these groups easy, paving the way for organized multitasking in ChromeOS.
The Snap Groups capability is available in ChromeOS 121.0.6122.0 behind a flag called Enable Snap Groups feature. The ability to create and switch between sets of split-screen apps will only work when the flag is set to Enabled. After you finish enabling the flag, open two apps in Split screen mode, and ChromeOS will group them into one app. A similar capability is already available in many Android phones. If you’re using a Samsung Galaxy phone, the Snap Groups equivalent is known as App Pair, designed to help users access two apps simultaneously.
The issue with multitasking in ChromeOS is that you can’t use more than two apps in Split screen mode. The very same limitation is also there when you use Snap Groups — ChomeOS can’t group more than two apps and make them appear as individual apps. Hopefully, we’ll see Google overcoming the barrier in the future.
