Google’s ChromeOS makes a strong effort to keepour favorite Chromebooksin sync with Chrome browser on other devices. Important information like saved passwords, addresses, bookmarks, extensions, and other settings is seamlessly available on all devices. However, if you juggle between two or more Chromebooks, you might find ChromeOS sync doesn’t make it easy to pick up where you left off on the other device. Thankfully, a feature called Floating Workspace is in the pipeline to make things better.
Rumors about Floating Workspace for ChromeOS have beenafloat since January last year, but we haven’t seen concrete evidence of the feature yet. Recent screenshots of ChromeOS Canary (v118) shared by@cr_c2cv on X(formerly Twitter) reveal the feature is currently in active development (viaChrome Unboxed). Besides everything ChromeOS syncs between your Chromebooks, Floating Workspace has the potential to smoothen your transition from one notebook to another by reopening the active tabs, apps, and windows from your previous device on the one you just switched to.
We don’t suggest you install ChromeOS Canary on your everyday workhorse Chromebooks, but if you have two or more machines just sitting, you may take Floating Workspace for a spin with this update. You need to enable the flag below after installing Canary v118 on both notebooks.
chrome://flags/#floating-workspace-v2
After installing, reboot your Chromebooks, and you should see your browser tabs and windows from one reopen on the other when you make the switch. The feature can be an immense boon for students and professionals who use a Chromebook for work, and another at home. Notably, it is better than the option to restore apps on startup, because one machine stays synced to your activity on the other Chromebook. You won’t lose work in case of an unexpected shutdown or if an app crashes.
Since the Floating Workspace feature is currently in the Canary stage, it could be just a few updates away from reaching the stable channel users. However, Google could change a few bits and bobs to refine the implementation before a widespread release.
