Google plans to bring spatial audio to Chromebooks, elevating these affordable laptops into better devices for watching and listening to your favorite media.
The introduction of spatial audio could elevate 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 work hours. It's worth noting that not all content supports spatial audio, so don't expect older movies to sound better.
Basically, spatial audio allows your device to change the way audio is sent to your headphones for 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 much more enjoyable – the lack of spatial audio on ChromeOS was previously a point of contention for some users, who considered it a basic feature in Windows, Android and macOS.
Audio everywhere!
According 9to5Google, the feature appeared in a recent code change in the Chromium repository, locked behind a chrome://flags code flag, and when enabled will show a new option in the Settings app. Of course, that doesn't mean the feature is ready to roll out. It's not currently available on ChromeOS Canary, the operating system's most experimental beta channel, but we'll likely see a widespread release in the near future.
It looks like Chromebook users have a lot to look forward to in terms of extensive updates and new features, including a central hub to find the best apps for ChromeOS and a Nice new default font!
Overall, I'm very happy to see Google making efforts to bring Chromebooks up to the standards of other productivity machines, like Apple's best MacBooks or even the best Windows laptops on the market. While Chromebooks have a stellar reputation for being convenient and affordable machines to work with, the addition of new features and updates is another step toward better laptop experiences for all ChromeOS users.
