Google, the undisputed tech giant is all set to bridge the gap between its two operating systems, Android and Chrome. In an all-new feature, a user can now respond to a message received on his Android-powered smartphone via Chromebook. This feature named, SMS Connect is most likely to come in the upcoming update of Android Oreo i.e. 8.1.
For now, this feature is only available with Developer Preview of Android 8.1, that too only on Pixel devices.
How this feature will work
The feature which was first spotted by Ars Technica, reported that initially it is deep buried and needs to be enabled. To do so, a user first needs to go to “Enable Multidevice features”, on chrome://flags. After a system reboot, a new option of SMS Connect can be located in settings.
Shedding more light on the feature, Ars Technica states that on the Android enabled smartphone there would be a new. apk for this feature, “SMSConnectPrebuilt”. This may or may not have an icon on the home screen. However, this can be launched via activity browser, which in turn give you a feature to set up a screen for SMSConnect.
How is this feature beneficial?
This feature would be a boon for the users who often miss their text messages while working on their Chromebook. Once this feature goes live, you can get all your messages directly on Chromebook. Not only this, you can also revert to them on Chromebook. Only the standard messaging rate will be charged as per the carrier you use.
What next?
No doubt that this feature would be of great help to thousands of users. However, if you visit Google Play store, you will find some apps like MightyText, Pulse SMS, and mysms which help to send/receive a message on PC/Laptop. Also, all these apps can work with almost all Smartphones with Android OS installed. Therefore, this feature isn’t something which is introduced first time ever. Moreover, as per early reports, this feature is only going to benefit those users who own both a Pixel and a Chromebook. It means this feature is only going to help a limited number of users and not the entire mass.