Chrome OS is rapidly becoming a more practical replacement for Windows and macOS machines with every passing day, but one area that's still lacking is proper tie-ins with Android. According to new commits in the Chromium Gerrit, however, this is going to start changing with proper integration with Android Messages.
Spotted by XDA Developers, the commit reads as follows:
Add a feature flag for CroOS Android Messages integration.
Later on, there's another snippet that says kAndroidMessagesIntegrationDescription[] = "Enables Chrome OS integration with Android messages."
It's unclear what this "integration" will actually look like, but seeing as how Chrome OS is being called out specifically, it sounds like it'll go deeper than the web-based client Android Messages is getting later this year.
If you remember, this actually isn't the first time we've heard about Android Messages and Chrome OS talking to one another. Back in late October when Android 8.1 first started rolling out, an app called "SMS Connect" was discovered that allowed you to "read and reply to text messages on your Chromebook" and "get notifications for new text messages."
Giving Android users a reason to buy Chrome OS machines over competing ones from Apple and Microsoft is something Google needs to get better at, and providing people with a built-in way to manage their text messages is a big step in that direction.
Android Messages is Google's best chance to compete with iMessage
