It’s even prettier than the first one
Last month, Google introduced animated screen savers to the Personalization Hub on Chrome OS Dev Channel 100. The feature will populate the screen with your pictures in real-time when activated. However, only one animation type called Feel the Breeze was initially available, resembling a backdrop of three photos hanging from two lines each and swaying in the wind. The tech giant has now added another animation to screen savers, and it has some touches of Material You.
The new screen saver type is called Float on by, and we were able to spot it in Chrome OS Canary version 101.0.4950.0. Once selected, you get a bunch of floating canvases with your pictures from a Google Photos album or the art gallery. What makes this animation even more interesting is the floating blobs of color in the background — just like those signature elements of Material You.
If you don’t mind getting on the highly experimental Chrome OS Canary, you can try the new screen saver animations on your Chromebook by switching to the latest under-development version of Chrome OS, navigating to Screensaver, and selecting Float on by. You can also try the previous animation by clicking on Feel the Breeze. If you don’t find any of those options right away, try turning on the Chrome developer flag called Ambient Mode Animation under chrome://flags.
Beyond the improved security features, Google’s most notable upgrade to Android 12 was Material You. And some of its elements have been trickling into Chrome OS for some time now. For example, we saw the company revamp Chrome OS’s wallpaper app with Material You vibes, replacing the old vertical layout with a horizontal one and introducing rounded corners, larger text, and its Product Sans font. We also know that Google’s working on a system-wide Material You redesign for Chrome OS. While most of the best bits of the dynamic theming engine on the operating system are still under wraps, it’ll be interesting to see it all come together soon.
Read Next
About The Author
