Thank you for the feedback since Googlebook launched! Here is what’s rolling out starting today and how you can resolve some of the most common setup snags:
Smoother first-time setup: A Google Play services update rolling out over the next few days reduces the steps needed to set up Cross-devices services. The update will also help improve certain timing issues where the setup QR code stays on the screen after completing phone setup.
Samsung Galaxy phone support: Our Better Together features (Continue On, Cast My Apps, Quick Access, and Notification Sync) are arriving on Samsung phones running One UI 9.0 (Android 17).
These updates will roll out automatically over the next few days as Google Play updates and background service updates (fastest when connected to Wi-Fi and charging). However, if you want to get started earlier, the instructions below can help you set up your phone and resolve common issues:
Confirm your phone runs Android 17: Your Android phone must run Android 17. To check your version, open Settings > About phone > Android version (your phone's settings may vary). Better Together features work with Pixel and compatible Android 17 phones including Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, Motorola, Lenovo, Honor, Sharp, Sony, Samsung (One UI 9.0), and more.
Check your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi: Confirm your phone and Googlebook use the same personal Google Account with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on.
Use a private home Wi-Fi network: Hotel, cafe, office, and guest Wi-Fi networks frequently use client isolation, which blocks direct local connections between your phone and laptop. Pause any active VPNs or network DNS blockers and test on a standard home Wi-Fi network.
Update Google Play services: Google Play services must be at version 26.37 or higher. To ensure your phone has the latest version, select Settings > Apps (or Apps & notifications)> See all apps. If Google Play services doesn't appear, select More and then Show system. Select Google Play services from the app list, then App details (or App details in store). If an update is available, select Update.
Update Cross-device services: Cross-device services must be at version 1.0.1346 or higher. To ensure your phone has the latest version, select Settings, then Apps (or Apps & notifications), then See all apps. Select Cross-device services from the app list, then App details (or App details in store). If an update is available, select Update.
Verify Continue activity sub-toggles: On your phone under Settings, search for Cross-device services > Continue activity, and confirm that Tasks, Apps, Notifications, Files & media sharing are all turned On.
Restart both your phone and your Googlebook to ensure changes take effect.
For full step-by-step instructions (including how to submit paired feedback logs from both devices if you're still stuck), check out our updated troubleshooting guide.
First of all, a massive, heartfelt thank you to all for being early adopters. We officially crossed Day 1, and seeing this community spin up and share their first impressions has been incredible. Please keep the feedback, questions, and bug reports coming.
Speaking of questions, we know that moving to a new device may come with a bit of a learning curve. That is a big reason why we built the Googlebook Help connector for Gemini.
Instead of manually digging through our Googlebook Help Center, you can just ask Gemini on your Googlebook a "how-to" question. Just press the keyboard shortcut Action key (Google G icon) + Space to summon Gemini instantly. Using the Googlebook Help connector, Gemini can connect directly to our official Googlebook Help Center to pull the most accurate, step-by-step instructions to help you navigate your new laptop.
Example How-To Questions
To make things easier, we organized some of the most popular setup and navigation questions we’ve been seeing into categories. If you are stuck, just ask Gemini these phrases on your Googlebook.
Getting Started
How do I translate text on the screen of my Googlebook?
How do I use Create My Widget on my Googlebook?
How do I hide the taskbar on my Googlebook?
How can I put a shortcut to a file onto my desktop?
How do external displays work on a Googlebook?
Input Shortcuts
How do I enable Caps Lock on Googlebook?
How do I see all the available keyboard shortcuts on my Googlebook?
How do I open Gemini in a mini window on my Googlebook?
Video Calling
How do I enable background blur during a video call?
How do I enable noise cancellation for my mic during a video call?
How can I improve the lighting during video calls on my Googlebook?
How can I keep the camera centered on me during video calls on my Googlebook?
Gaming & Apps
How do I see what apps are using system resources?
How can I play touchscreen games on my Googlebook using the keyboard?
How do I claim perks on my Googlebook?
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Helpful Tips & Tricks from your Googlebook community team 😁
Tip #1: Quickly see your notifications with a simple swipe gesture
Did you know you can pull down the notifications panel in the top-right hand corner without clicking the notification bell icon? Simple swipe down on your touchpad with 3 fingers!
Tip #2: Create a corner shortcut to peek at your desktop
Did you know you can quickly peek at your Googlebook’s desktop without closing or minimizing your open window(s)? You can do so by either pressing G + V, or, what we recommend, creating a corner shortcut that activates when you move your cursor into a specific corner of your screen. Go to Settings > Devices & accessories > Touchpad > Customize corner shortcuts to configure your desired corner shortcut(s)!
Tip #3: Jot down your thoughts with a quick keyboard shortcut
If you’re afraid of losing your train of thought, you can quickly take a note by using the G + Ctrl + N keyboard shortcut to open the default notes app in a new window. This works with Google Keep as well as Notability - just be sure to choose your default notes app under Settings > Apps > Default apps > Notes app!
Tip #4: Customize keyboard shortcuts & create app launcher shortcuts
Googlebook OS comes with a plethora of keyboard shortcuts to help you quickly navigate your device, but did you know that you can customize these shortcuts? Better yet, you can even create your own keyboard shortcuts to launch apps of your choice!
First, press G + / to pull up the list of keyboard shortcuts (or navigate to Settings > Device & accessories > Keyboard > Physical keyboards > View keyboard shortcuts). Then, click the Customize button near the top right of the menu. Finally, click the + button next to the keyboard shortcut you want to customize.
If you want to create a new app shortcut, click on the App shortcuts tab on the left and then either click Add shortcut at the bottom or Customize near the top right.
Tip #5: Discover app-specific keyboard shortcuts
If you want to know whether an app supports its own custom keyboard shortcuts, press G + / while the app is open. The keyboard shortcuts menu will appear with that app’s list of available shortcuts. Check out the keyboard shortcuts you can use in Chrome, Files, and Viewer!
Tip #6: Enhance your multitasking with virtual desktops
If you want to quickly switch between multiple groups of windows on your Googlebook, you can create virtual desktops for each group! Get started by opening the recent apps screen (swipe up on the touchpad with 3 fingers) then click the add desktop button on the right.
To move between desktops, use the G + Ctrl + [ keyboard shortcut to move left or G + Ctrl + ] keyboard shortcut to move right. To move the active window between desktops, you can use the G + Shift + [ shortcut to move the window to the desktop on the left or the G + Shift + ] shortcuts to move the window to the desktop on the right.
Tip #7: Fix your lighting, filter out background noise, or blur the background during a video call
On your Googlebook, you have access to a variety of audiovisual effects from your screen's status bar. You can adjust the background blur, improve lighting, reduce under-eye darkness, automatically center or zoom the camera to your face, filter out background noise, and more.
To access these effects, click the microphone or camera icon in the status bar while an app is using your microphone or camera. Then, select the effect(s) you want to activate for the current voice or video call. For more details on these audiovisual effects, visit our help center.
Bonus Tip: Make your Glowbar 🕺with the music!
The Glowbar on the back of your Googlebook provides quick visual feedback about your device's power, battery status, and other important system activities, but it can also do some fun stuff like sync with the music that’s currently playing from your device 🎶. Here’s a demo from the Senior Director of Product for Laptops & Tablets at Google, Alexander Kuscher.
I have been keenly interested in playing with these devices hands on before pulling the trigger but unfortunately there are no bricks n mortar Google Stores here in Colorado. I have visited several Denver area Best Buy locations over the past couple weeks but have had no luck up until today... I finally found them today at the Denver Flagship store off Colorado Blvd and I25.
They have 4 of the 5 models on display.... Unfortunately the one model I am most interested in (Asus Googlebook 14) is NOT on display.
The BB sales guy I chatted with said they (Best Buy employees) have zero say or control over the Goolge display units. What he described is that a single person has to hit every Best Buy in the Denver area one at a time to set up the display table and brings in the devices as well. Ostensibly he did not have an Asus display model for the flagship store. Odd. This seems like a comically inefficient way of launching these new premium devices but I suppose this all very on-brand behavior for Google device launch.
Figured I would share here in the event anyone else in the Denver area is looking to get your hands on them.
Personally, I am leaning towards the Asus as I would rather have the legacy support from x86 architecture, the OLED display and haptic trackpad are nice features and mostly just want the myriad of ports that the Asus model offers.
I'm eagerly awaiting them being listed for sale on the Google Store (online) so that I can use this ~$330 store credit from my Pixel 11 Pro purchase.... Unfortunately Google support reps are telling me via chat and phone that they cannot confirm when or even if the Asus model will be sold through the Google Store directly 😮💨
At this point I'm considering just waiting another month or so and seeing if any Black Friday deals happen on these.
Hi everyone, I'm the developer of gbOS86, an independent project that runs Google's Googlebook OS on ordinary Intel laptops instead of Google's own hardware.
What it is
Googlebook OS is built for Google's own machines: their CPU, a security chip, a protected VM, and their kernel. gbOS86 keeps Google's userspace as shipped and replaces what's underneath:
A different kernel (Android common kernel 6.18) with a CPU-instruction emulator. Google's binaries use instructions like SHA-NI, AVX-VNNI, GFNI and VAES that most laptops lack, so the kernel emulates them.
Patched libraries for the hottest code (zlib checksums and SHA-256 in libcrypto), so boot and Play Store installs aren't crawling.
Software stand-ins for the Google-only security hardware, so setup and the lock screen work.
Boot-time hardware detection that loads the right Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio, touchpad and platform drivers on each machine and writes a report (hwdetect.txt).
A boot menu on the USB stick: run live, install to the internal NVMe, or update an existing install without touching your data. The installer erases the drive only after you type its serial number.
What works today
On my Dell Latitude 5300 (i5-8365U): boots to the desktop, setup and Google sign-in, Play Store installs, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sound, touchpad with gestures, battery, and a persistent install on the NVMe drive.
What I need to be upfront about
Only that one laptop is tested. Support for other Intel 6th-gen and newer laptops (Intel, Realtek, MediaTek, Qualcomm and Broadcom Wi-Fi, HDA and SOF audio, I2C/PS2 touchpads, laptop hotkeys) is built in but untested on real hardware.
It's slower than on Google's hardware, because many instructions are emulated. Newer CPUs that have them natively will do better.
It is not a secure device. SELinux is permissive, Secure Boot has to be off, and the security services are software stand-ins.
Suspend/resume, fingerprint readers, IPU6 cameras and discrete GPUs don't work. Installing needs an NVMe drive; live USB works without.
No image download. The image contains Google's OS, so you build it yourself from Google's public recovery image. The repo has the tools and kernel patches, plus a few patched Google libraries the build needs.
How you can help
If you have an Intel laptop, try the live USB and send me your hwdetect.txt (it's in gbos/logs/boot-N/ on the stick after a boot). It lists your devices, which ones got a driver and which firmware is missing, and that's what lets me add support.
When I first started reading about Googlebooks, I was a bit skeptical. Having been an early adopter of Android tablets with the first Motorola Xoom, I wasn't really all too keen on the idea of Android running on anything but a smartphone. I eventually migrated to an iPad, primarily because app support for Android tablets is not very good.
I'm an Android phone user, a Windows computer user, and an iPad user. I build my own PCs that run Windows 11, primarily for gaming. And I'm really disgusted with how slow Windows 11 feels.
Regarding Googlebook OS, I've seen the negative reviews. Whatever. I decided to be an early adopter and invested in the HP Googlebook. I went with an ARM powered laptop because of battery life concerns and also not wanting to mess around with some sort of app translation layer. So far I'm impressed with the build quality of the laptop and how fast this OS is.
I think Google is on to something here. They need to bring third party developers on board pronto. But so far, I'm liking what I see.
Been using my HP Googlebook for a few days, overall liking it despite some bugs, but I just had my first "damn that's cool" moment with the OS, the CTRL+G+N shortcut for notes.
Being able to call up Keep, take a voice note using the Rambler shortcut key, and then having the note automatically sync to my Obsidian vault (via KeepSydian) with a mere 4 keystrokes is a legitimately killer feature for my personal workflow.
Purchased an "open box - excellent" HP for $220 off MSRP, hoping for a wonderful PC <-> Android experience. Hardware is superb, as expected. App casting from my Pixel 10 Pro XL has been rock solid since the Googlebook received an update yesterday that required a reboot. Ditto with the File Transfer. My Pixel's integration via Continue On has been a pleasant surprise. These are probably enough of a reason to keep it, along with the promise of ongoing improvements. It'll get better, it already has.
For context, I've been on Android since day 1, and Pixel phones for the last 5 years. I'm coming from a Macbook Air M3 that my kid took to college. So it was a Googlebook or a Macbook Air M5. Hardware feels equivalent to the M3, plus a touchscreen that I keep forgetting to use. The Macbook is of course way more capable aside from the complete lack of Android integration, but I knew that.
There are some annoying bugs and feature gaps, but I expect issues when adopting early. Chrome and Terminal (Linux) will be lacking for a while, and I'd like some better options for managing multiple desktops. The "delete more text than selected" issue is very annoying with Reddit's text editor in particular. My typing workflow on Reddit has become an almost automatic "select text > Backspace > Ctrl+Z" to undo whatever was over-deleted.
Oddness: I don't understand why the G key is where it is, given how important it is for keyboard shortcuts. It's technically within range of my left pinkie, but it's not intuitive to hit it that way. I always have to look at the keyboard to find it. I keep expecting the G key to be where Caps Lock is, that would have been more intuitive. It looks like I can remap keys if I really care.
The previous owner must have redeemed the GeForce 12 months offer, but I don't really care. I redeemed the Google Pro 12 month offer.
I have a little under 2 weeks to change my mind and return it. We'll see.
Anyone else getting errors trying to use the Titan key to do things like log into their Google account (lol), or anything with passkeys? Acer Googlebook here
Even after the newest Chrome update, when opening a Google Sheet and/or a Google Slides document, it opens in Chrome. Also, if you try to install Sheets and Slides as PWA apps is not possible. The system says that the app is already installed. The thing is though that Google Docs can be installed as a PWA app, which causes the OS to open all Google Docs document in the PWA app and not the default wrapper apps that Googlebook OS provides. Sheets and Slides cannot be installed as PWA because their names are the same as the system apps.
Google, please change that. Make it work as on all OSes that have a desktop browser. At least now I have a workaround for Google Docs. We need to be able to open Sheets and Slides in their own apps, not Chrome.
Had the device for about 5 days. Not sure everything that changed, and I'm not 100% sure the following is new... But, I just now noticed the browser is themed based on my selected desktop wallpapers. I also noticed that when media is playing, there is a new indicator up on the top bar, next to the the notification area that lets you play/pause media quickly (see the picture).
I just updated to the latest chrome that is supposed to enable pwa. The create shortcut does not exist in chrome under share. Anyone else have this issue or know a fix?
If I plug in my XPS Googlebook to an external monitor and camera, I can't use the camera in the Android Zoom app. The web app works, but the resolution is very low. It would be amazing to make it possible to use these external cameras. Otherwise, it is extremely hard to use this product at work.
If a few things were worked out (this camera issue, the bluetooth audio codec issue on Snapdragon) it would be very feasible for me to use this as a daily driver.
Was watching a show in Prime Video through Chrome on an XPS Googlebook. The audio was not properly synced with the video. This was playing through the speakers, not earbuds.
When I tried to use the Prime Video app, the visuals were totally off -- video was extremely dark (even at full screen brightness).
I am trying to find out if there is a way to disable notifications sync between our Pixel and our Googlebooks for selected apps. I haven't found anything yet.
Tldr;.had Chromebooks since 2012 and computers since 1980. I like it but there are some updates (software mainly) needed.
So....
I bought this as a pre-order and Best Buy delivered it the next day from launch day. I was a little disappointed to realize the mounts didn't come because I got it from Best Buy, but I guess that's what you get when you spend $50 less. The delivery, the packaging, and the presentation was pretty good though, even in the plain Jane box.
Setting up device gave me a hiccup right out of the box. The red Lenovo logo screen was flashing and it was boot looping. Held the power button down, rebooted, got the recovery window, turned it off, turned it back on, everything was flawless. Don't know what that hiccup was, but I had plugged it in to charge for quite some time. I think it powered itself on and it may have been in the middle of an update or a firmware update when I had initially booted it. Lesson learned, right?
I did an update right then and there and then I got everything loaded, all my apps loaded, and I used my Pixel 11 Pro to set up the device. Pretty easy, pretty flawless. Took a little while to get it running and get everything copied and get logged in and there were absolutely shutters and missteps. I took it out and used it in the real a few times and brought it back to continue loading and testing.
Now I'm typing this pre-update that dropped yesterday or the day before, so take that for what it's worth. I didn't get to download and install that yet......
Speakers are pretty fire. Sound is great. Not quite mac great but pretty good for my ears. Screen is bright, large and easy on the eyes. Colors work.
Surfaces to me are hit or miss. The book is light thanks to some magnesium alloy, like Samsung used years back, and the trackpad is centered ,large and in charge. The keyboard is only meh and while the side feel and layout are fine it's the materials the keys are made from I dislike. Backlighting is great.
Machine is fast but there were stutters day one and two as things burned in. Android devices do this too after OTA. Seems like a scheduler or optimization that needs to happen in a future update.
Enough ram for sure and no noticable shortages there nor on storage.
My only beef and this is #WPP is I can't connect cloud storage (iCloud) to a Googlebook using the apple iCloud sync app.....web version is fine..... But MS and Google can via native AP. MS..... 😮💨🤷
I use this for not work. .I'm not nonprofit boards and spend time outside a lot when I'm not working. This is big, yes, but also light and still portable at 15".
I'll do the update in the coming days, update my apps, and work on this more this weekd. Let's see what else I see......
I bit the billet and ordered the magic AI mouse for $45 in store credit at the store.google.com site. Should be here soon......
This isn't running in a VM, it's running on real hardware. It's also not just a simple GSI, but a complete native port.
The fixes are still ongoing. There are just way too many things broken on AluminiumOS right now, so I won't be releasing the image until I get all the issues resolved.
Below is the list of what has been fixed so far. If it's not mentioned here, you can basically assume it's broken.
Boot speed optimization
NVMe fix
Windows dual-boot support
Wi-Fi fix
Bluetooth fix
GPU boost fix
GPU performance optimization
Audio fix
Bluetooth audio fix
Audio latency optimization
General audio optimization
Microphone fix
Bluetooth microphone fix
120Hz fix
VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) support
Auto-brightness fix
Hardware video encoding/decoding fix
Touchscreen fix
Touch optimization
Touch latency optimization
Type Cover fix
Surface Pen fix
USB 2.0 fix
USB 3.1/3.2 fix
USB OTG fix
Dual Type-C ports fix
USB hot-plugging / hot-swapping fix
Front camera fix
Rear camera fix
Camera privacy indicator light fix
Camera image quality optimization
Accelerometer fix
Gyroscope fix
Ambient light sensor fix
Battery percentage display fix
Charging fix
Charge limit fix
Support for screen-off without sleeping while charging
