What you need to know
- Recent changes to the Chromium Gerrit reveal a new Personalization Hub for Chrome OS.
- This will house all of the personalization and customization options for Chrome OS devices.
- Another recent change reveals that users will be able to automatically refresh their wallpaper.
Late in 2021, it was discovered that Google was working on a new interface for users to customize how their Chrome OS devices look and feel. Previously, owners of the best Chromebooks were limited to only being able to really change the wallpaper, along with a few other minor options. This older interface has become outdated, and Google has been consciously working to replace it with an all-new Personalization Hub.
Personalization Hub originally appeared alongside Chrome OS Canary 98, but has seen continued updates in subsequent Chromium Gerrit commits and Chrome OS releases. When enabled, this Hub provides access to different Wallpaper collections, along with finally making it possible to use your own Google Photos library as wallpapers.
As discovered by About Chromebooks, recent Chromium Gerrit commits also reveal Google is putting a few more features into the Personalization Hub. We were able to get this working on a Chromebook running the Chrome OS 102 Dev Channel, and the interface gives you options for Wallpapers, Screen Savers, and toggles to switch between Light mode, Dark mode, and Auto.
If you're like me and enjoy having new wallpapers that automatically appear on your Chromebook, then you're in luck. Chrome Story found a new flag in Chromium that will allow users to have a new wallpaper appear every 10 seconds.
personalization: Expose wallpaper fast refresh flag Will allow developers (and users, though this is not the flag’s intent) to enable/disable the wallpaper fast refresh manual testing mode via chrome://flags on Dev/Canary/Unknown channels.
Unfortunately, we were unable to find and enable this flag ourselves, but it could just be a matter of time before that changes. Currently, the Personalization Hub can change your wallpaper automatically on a daily basis. But it never hurts to provide users with more options depending on their wants and needs.
As we mentioned above, there's no telling when these features will make their way to the stable version of Chrome OS. If you have a spare Chromebook that could be used to test out new flags and features, then you can always switch over to the Dev Channel. But we don't recommend doing so on a Chromebook that you need to get work done as there are plenty of bugs to be found.
With the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5, you might not be getting the most powerful Chromebook. But with the included kickstand and cover case, along with improved internals and an incredible display, you would be hard-pressed to find a more fun Chrome OS companion.
