Google is planning to bring ppatial audio to Chromebooks, elevating these accessible laptops to become better devices for watching and listening to your favorite media.
The introduction of spatial audio could raise the prestige of the best Chromebooks, and make them more viable competitors to Windows laptops and MacBooks for users who want to enjoy their laptop outside of working hours. It should be noted that not all content supports spatial audio, so don’t expect old movies to sound better.
Spatial audio essentially allows your device to change the way audio is sent to your headphones so you get more depth of sound – in a sense, emulating proper 7.1 surround sound. So, being able to watch movies and TV shows on your Chromebook and take advantage of the newly implemented spatial audio will definitely make your downtime a lot more enjoyable – the lack of spatial audio in ChromeOS was previously a point of contention for some users, who considered it to be a staple feature in Windows, Android, and macOS.
Audio all around!
According to 9to5Google, the feature showed up in a recent code change in the Chromium repository, locked behind a chrome://flags code marker, and when enabled will show a new option in the Settings app. Of course, that doesn’t mean the feature is ready to be rolled out. It’s currently not available in ChromeOS Canary, the most experimental beta channel of the operating system, but we’re likely to see it have a widespread launch in the near future.
It seems like Chromebook users have a lot to look forward to in terms of sweeping updates and new features, including a central hub to find all the best apps for ChromeOS and a nice new default font!
Overall, I’m really glad to see Google put in the work to bring Chromebooks up to the standards of other productivity machines like the best Apple MacBooks or even just the best Windows laptops on the market. While Chromebooks have a stellar reputation for being financially accessible and convenient machines to work on, the addition of new features and updates is a step closer to better laptop experiences for all ChromeOS users!