Google could be working on a way for you to take phone calls on your Chromebook
Considering how many people use a Chromebook and Android phone at the same time, it’s a bit surprising that its taken Google this long to truly flesh out the Phone Hub feature. According to ChromeUnboxed, a new Chromium Gerrit has been committed, revealing that Google is working on letting you take phone calls on your Chromebook.
We have been seeing mentions of an unannounced feature code named “Eche”, which essentially allows you to mirror your phone on your Chromebook. In theory, this would work similar to what we see when using the Your Phone app on Windows. And just like certain features being limited to Samsung phones, Eche would at least start out as a Pixel exclusive.
The Chromium Gerrit adds a flag to “enable the Incoming/Ongoing call notification feature”. Which sounds more like allowing users to make and receive phone calls directly from the Chromebook. But even with more “always-connected” Chromebooks becoming available, it wouldn’t make much sense to use one as a phone. Because of that reasoning, it’s much more likely that you’ll be able to just have phone call from your Pixel “pushed” to your Chromebook. It’s no different than what we see from Apple when using an iPhone and a Mac, as the FaceTime app can double as a phone app and will ring when a call is coming through.
Unfortunately, none of this is actually functional just yet, despite it being available in the Canary builds for Chrome. But we would also venture to guess that if Google is working on big plans for Chrome OS, it’s possible that we would end up with an event. It’s probably just wishful thinking, but how awesome would it be to see a new Pixelbook launched alongside the Pixel 6? Here’s to hoping that it actually happens.