Once upon a time, Chrome OS wasn't the most touch-friendly system. There weren't many touchscreen models of Chromebooks, and there was no real rush to fix how a system designed for a mouse and keyboard wasn't really designed for touchscreen input.
Well, Chrome OS has come a long way since then, and now that touchscreen Chromebooks are becoming more and more popular, thanks in no small part to Android apps jumping to Chromebooks, and Google has been slowly making the system more and more touch-friendly. That change has now spread to a new Chrome desktop, as evidenced in a YouTube video from Chromium evangelist François Beaufort.
The video below shows a new Chrome desktop that's now available in the Chrome OS Canary channel. The new version seems to smoosh the app launcher window onto the bottom of the screen when you tap the Apps button rather than popping it up in a new window. It displays the search bar, complete with an easy-to-tap voice search button, and a small smattering of suggested apps. You drag up on this bar to bring up the full app drawer, which looks very Android-like. The Chrome OS desktop has needed an overhaul for a bit, and while it's still early days, if the app launcher is going to act this much like Android, maybe we'll get another Android feature in icon packs... or maybe that's just the themer in me begging for a bigger canvas.
At any rate, this is a Canary channel feature, so you may not want to try it on a Chromebook you depend on, but if your Chromebook is more of a supplemental device, this might just be for you.
