One of the biggest changes in ChromeOS 117 is the adoption of the "Material You" design philosophy, which was originally introduced to Android 12. The new design keeps users' preferences at the heart of everything it does. One major benefit of the new design philosophy is that your accent color will now match the wallpaper and adapt to the light and dark modes. From a more user-friendly three-dot menu design and new color options to bigger buttons in Quick Settings and allowing users to customize the color pallet to their preferences, the new design philosophy is noticeable throughout the OS. The latest ChromeOS version is much more than a design revamp, though.
Google has paid serious attention to improving the usability of ChomeOS 117. For example, all your upcoming meetings in the new ChromeOS Calendar will now include a button to let you directly join meetings. Also, Chromebooks with the latest update installed can show you the status of the OS version, battery, RAM, storage, or CPU in Launcher search. The Mountain View tech giant is also working on a new feature that will let you filter your search in the Launcher. It's available behind a developer flag called "Enable launcher search control". You can enable the flag to narrow down the search results and quickly find relevant files, settings, app shortcuts, and more.
Privacy is also a big focus in the latest ChromeOS update. You'll now see privacy indicators on the bottom right status area to indicate that the camera or mic is in use. Also, Chromebooks with Chrome 117 will allow you to control camera and microphone settings across the operating system with just a click from one place in Settings. However, this is coming later this year.
After installing ChromeOS 117, you'll notice some enhancements in Clipboard History. "You will now be able to see more detail for items in your clipboard history and can access clipboard history items nested directly in context menus," explained Google in its official blog post. For those using the Clipboard History for the first time, you'll see a walkthrough to understand how it works.
The latest ChromeOS version will also take care of your device's battery, thanks to Adaptive Charging. When enabled via Settings, it completes charging to 100 percent at a slower speed when the battery is charged to 80%. Google is using a Machine Learning model to learn when you unplug your charger. So, for example, if the battery hits the 80% mark two hours before you usually unplug your Chromebook, it will spend the rest of the time charging the remaining 20%. This reduces the time a device spends at 100% charge, thus preventing the battery from degrading sooner. This feature is already available in the best Android and iPhone devices. For those who charge their Chromebooks overnight, the new charging capability will indeed come in handy.
Other noteworthy changes in ChromeOS 117 include GIF support in the emoji picker, the ability to listen to audio from an Android app and the web simultaneously without one pausing the other, support for Time-Lapse recording in the built-in camera app, Improved Vietnamese Telex and VNI input method experience, and new built-in color correction settings. However, ChromeOS 17 and its features will be "progressively rolling over the coming days", meaning not everybody will get it on their device today.
You can navigate to Settings > About ChromeOS > Check for updates to manually check if Google has pushed the update to your device.
