One of Googlebook’s main selling points is its deep integration with Android, or at least that’s what Google and its partners have been pitching so far. But this integration comes with several catches, and right now, it doesn’t work with Android’s biggest manufacturer, Samsung.
As many early Googlebook adopters are discovering and reporting on Reddit, Google’s new laptop OS Better Together features don’t currently work with Samsung devices running Android 17.
That means you cannot continue tasks started on your Android phone on your Googlebook, sync notifications or Do Not Disturb settings across devices, remotely access files from your phone through your Googlebook, or use Instant Hotspot.
Responding to a Reddit post, Mishaal Rahman from Google confirmed that support for Samsung devices running Android 17 will be added to Googlebooks “over the coming weeks.” That’s certainly not the experience early Googlebook adopters were expecting, but then, this is Google we are talking about.
Google’s support page also confirms that the deep Android integration in Googlebooks will work only with devices running Android 17. Given that only a handful of phones run the latest Android release, you may want to hold off on your Googlebook purchase for now.
Ideally, given Google’s heavy Googlebook marketing, the company should have addressed these issues before launch.
Even Slack misses the launch party
The lack of support for Samsung devices and incompatibility with Android 16 or earlier are not the only problems. As early Googlebook adopters are discovering, they can’t seem to install Slack on their laptops. The Play Store displays a “Better on the website” label for the Slack app on Googlebook. But users also report that they can’t install the web app, which displays a “this app cannot be installed” error.
As Google itself has acknowledged, the Slack app is not PWA “compliant.” But the company will add support for manual installation soon.
Again, considering how widely Slack is used in the corporate world, it’s a bit surprising that Google didn’t fix these issues before launch. While the company will eventually address these launch-day issues, they should not have been there in the first place.
For now, if you’re planning on buying a Googlebook, wait for a few more weeks so that Google and its launch partners can iron out all the early kinks. That will ensure you get a better experience instead of the early adopter headaches.
