An update rolling out to Chrome OS brings a big change to navigation when in tablet mode. Now, users with a Chrome OS tablet or device that converts into one, you’ll be able to breeze around the operating system with Android-like gestures.
The latest build of Chrome OS introduces a swipe-up gesture to take you home (or to your apps), a swipe-and-hold to view an app switcher, and a swipe-in from the left or right side to go back or forward a screen. There’s also a mini swipe-up from the bottom that will show you a Quick Shelf of apps. Again, this is almost identical to Android’s newish gestures outside of the swipe-in from the right which moves you forward a screen on Chrome OS.
In addition to the new gestures, this new build of Chrome OS adds a more touch-friendly tab strip to the Chrome browser. In the image below, you’ll see the tab layout, which shows at the top of Chrome and lets you re-arrange by touching and dragging, or killing a tab by swiping it up.
This new Chrome experience arrives first on the Lenovo Chromebook Duet in a couple of weeks. Google then plans to bring it to other Chromebooks with tablet mode “soon.”
For the new gestures, that update is arriving now on Chrome OS. In fact, my Pixel Slate already has it.