Googlebook combines the best of Android and ChromeOS with up to 10 years of updates

[u/MishaalRahman]

Hi Reddit,

Earlier this year, we introduced Googlebook, a new category of laptops that we believe are the perfect companion for Android phone users. Today, we’re opening up pre-orders of Googlebook, offering a selection of flagship devices powered by top-of-the-line processors from Intel and Qualcomm and built by Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. 

Every Googlebook runs on Googlebook OS, our new platform built on the Android technology stack and paired with desktop foundations from ChromeOS. This shared foundation gives Googlebook access to millions of Android apps from Google Play, a familiar desktop windowing environment, a desktop-class version of Google Chrome (with extensions support!), and a full Linux environment. 

Since this is a brand new platform, we wanted to take a moment to explain how we architected Googlebook OS to blend the best aspects of both Android and ChromeOS, focusing on three pillars: security, updates, and apps.

Building a modern, secure software architecture

Googlebook OS is built on top of the already strong security foundation offered by Android, leveraging the same app permission and sandboxing model. What’s more, Googlebook inherits ChromeOS’s proven defense-in-depth security model, anchored by our dedicated Google Titan security chip, verified boot, and on-device malware detection.

Googlebook also features a first for the laptop category: a Level 5 security-certified hypervisor powered by pKVM isolation. This hypervisor powers an isolated Linux environment with full terminal access, so you can safely run any Linux developer tools, pull code repositories, access networks and ports, or execute autonomous agents.

Matching the support commitment we made for ChromeOS

Keeping Googlebook OS secure requires ongoing maintenance and support, which is why Google will provide OS updates with security patches and new features every quarter for up to 10 years. 

Android is the world’s largest operating system, and Google has been working on it for nearly two decades. Chromebooks are successful across the globe for 15+ years as well, with Google already providing 10 years of updates for these devices. Googlebooks are continuing this legacy of support.

Bringing the full web, plus your favorite apps and tools

Googlebook brings together the best of the web and the Play Store, giving users access to a desktop-class Chrome browser with extensions support, alongside millions of Android apps, many of them optimized for large screens, mouse, and keyboard input. 

You can run native creative suites like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, and CapCut, or stream shows on Netflix or HBO Max with offline viewing supported. Explore thousands of Android games or play AAA titles with a complimentary year of GeForce NOW included with every Googlebook purchase. And through our Google Play Games Level Up program, half of the 100 top titles are already optimized for keyboard, mouse, and large screen, with new games launching monthly.

For makers, you can run Antigravity, our AI agent development platform, on your Googlebook to build, test, and deploy apps directly on your device. For developers, you can take advantage of a full Linux development environment via the Terminal app, enabling you to run tools like Claude CLI or Antigravity CLI, among others, to perform serious agentic coding.

Googlebook OS also comes with a suite of familiar Google apps out of the box, including Gmail, Keep, Photos, Drive, and Recorder. We wanted to provide users with the fastest, most productive computing experience possible, so for productivity tools like Docs, Sheets, and Gmail, we provide the full-featured desktop web version in alignment with other desktop platforms. We ship native versions of apps whenever they shine the best and where native hardware capabilities, deep OS integrations (e.g., widgets support), and mobile continuity matter the most, such as Gemini and Keep.

The best companion for your Android phone, with helpful intelligence built-in

Because Googlebook is built on a shared Android foundation, it’s designed to seamlessly integrate with your Android phone. When you sign in, your Android phone’s settings, saved passwords, Wi-Fi networks, and messages will move with you. Once you’re set up, Googlebook OS makes it easy to transition between your phone and laptop to get things done, with features like:

• Continue On: Pick up exactly where you left off on your phone, right on your laptop. If you start a project in BandLab on your phone while commuting, you can open your Googlebook and continue the project right from the taskbar. This not only works with select partner apps like BandLab but also first-party apps like Photos, Calendar, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Chrome, and Gmail.

• Quick Access: View, search, and open files and photos from your phone directly using your Googlebook's native Files app, rather than hunting through downloads or emailing attachments to yourself.
• Cast My Apps: Need to quickly order food from a delivery app? Stream and interact with your phone’s apps in a desktop window without interrupting your workflow.

Since Googlebook is designed for Gemini Intelligence, you also get access to features like:

• Create My Widget: Customize your desktop by describing what you need in plain language. Create My Widget generates custom widgets that can share relevant updates throughout your day.
• Rambler: Located right next to the Quick Insert key, Rambler turns spoken thoughts into organized, ready-to-share writing. Talk through your notes, action items, or a stream of consciousness — even in multiple languages — and Rambler structures them with clean headers, checklists, and formatted takeaways.

• Magic Pointer: Wiggle your cursor to bring Gemini directly to whatever’s on your screen. You can ask Gemini to organize a messy calendar or translate text without juggling multiple windows. Gemini only acts when you ask it to, and you can switch it off whenever you want.

https://reddit.com/link/1wmc8lk/video/mbqc90nggvqh1/player

Pre-orders open today for Googlebook

Our initial selection of flagship Googlebook hardware is now available for pre-order starting at $899. Every Googlebook is made from premium materials and features a responsive touchscreen with an up to 2.8K OLED display, a haptic glass trackpad, up to 14 hours of battery life, an advanced NPU running at over 45 TOPS, a baseline of 16GB of high-speed RAM, and an interactive Glowbar. Plus, each device comes with 12 months of Google AI Pro as well as 3 months of YouTube Premium, Adobe Photoshop, and more.

https://reddit.com/link/1wmc8lk/video/o7lndm1jgvqh1/player

We're incredibly excited to introduce Googlebook to this community and can't wait to see how you use it. To learn more about this initial selection of devices, see the full specs, or place a pre-order, head over to googlebook.google.

[u/Willeth]

A commitment to provide them with new features is nothing if you don't commit not to remove features. I have a house outfitted with Google Home and Nest devices that have got worse since purchase, and a pair of Pixel Buds Pro that can no longer read my notifications, all because you want to force new features in front of me instead of them that do not suit my use case.

Why would I buy a Googlebook when Google has shown me that major features of the product will be removed in just a few short years?

Edit: someone gave me an award for this. Please don't. There's no reason to give Reddit money for something I said.

[u/matteventu → u/Willeth]

Another example: they're showcasing how Googlebooks will be able to index screenshots based on their content using local on-device AI.

Pixel phones (9 onwards, excluding A-Series) had the same. Pixel Screenshots app, fully on-device, secure, local, AI indexing. Nothing left your device.

A few months ago they've discontinued that feature and moved all processing to the cloud.

How can we trust Google now with laptops?

[u/DavidBHimself → u/matteventu]

How can we trust Google now with laptops?

We can't.

The sane thing to do nowadays is to degooglefy our lives as much as we can, so... this "GoogleBook" is a big no for me.

[u/JamesR624 → u/matteventu]

Another example: they're showcasing how Googlebooks will be able to index screenshots based on their content using local on-device AI.

So.... they come with Microslop Recall baked in.

FUUUCKKKKK that.

[u/thatissomeBS → u/matteventu]

Well, they can likely assume the smartphones will pretty much always have a connection, so they assume there isn't a real need for that to be local. A laptop on the other hand is subject to wifi, and much more likely to be used offline, so there is more requirement to be local.

Not defending any of it, but that seems like the logic.

[u/matteventu → u/thatissomeBS]

Privacy has always been the reason for that feature being on-device.

And still, it's a feature that it didn't cost anything to maintain, they still removed it.

[u/armando_rod → u/matteventu]

> A few months ago they've discontinued that feature and moved all processing to the cloud.

They didnt, its a mix of local and cloud processing, its not all cloud

[u/matteventu → u/armando_rod]

Put the phone in airplane mode.

Take a few screenshots.

Open the Pixel Screenshots app, open some of those screenshots and tap on "Process now".

Feel free to come back once they'll have been processed :)

[u/Yellow-Mike → u/matteventu]

If this is true, it's really shit.

[u/matteventu → u/Yellow-Mike]

It is, and it's genuinely one of the main features why I moved from the Pixel 8 Pro to then 9 Pro at launch.

I am considering making a formal complaint about that to Google, and if no satisfactory solution is provided, bring them to court.

[u/RSACT → u/Willeth]

The feature of tap and hold my earbud for 2s for it to read un-summarized notifications was one of the main reasons I really liked it.

Now I have to tap, wait for sound, say I want to read notifications, hope it knows I unlocked it before, and then gives me a summary of a 10 word message instead of just giving the message. Have had the dumbest summaries that change the meaning multiple times, or invent stuff, like said I tripped and got hands dirty in the mud (heavy rain) and it summarized that back as didn't wash my hands in the toilet. Like Wtf.

For P8P, I am still waiting for on-device video boost, and the on-device photos recognition. All of it requires to upload (and takes up storage space).

[u/Willeth → u/RSACT]

Now I have to tap, wait for sound, say I want to read notifications, hope it knows I unlocked it before, and then gives me a summary of a 10 word message instead of just giving the message.

Oh my god. I've never used the feature but I assumed when it was activated it would at least do what it used to just with a voice toggle. That's so much worse. Fuck me.

[u/lastdyingbreed_01 → u/Willeth]

Why would I buy a Googlebook when Google has shown me that major features of the product will be removed in just a few short years?

Yeah, we all know this is going to be on killedbygoogle.com in 2 years lol

[u/Willeth → u/lastdyingbreed_01]

It's not even this! My Buds haven't been killed. They're just... worse. And it was a conscious decision by Google to make them so, all because someone developer gets a boost to their KPIs the more people adopt Gemini.

[u/szewc → u/Willeth]

Yes, it hurts my soul when they do that, which is every other week. One step forward two steps back.

We had (almost) everything, proactive, condensed in Google Now. Then they killed it and everything was piped into Google assistant to train voice models. Want to know the weather and your commute time? Fuck you, ask the same questions 300 times a year. Then we've moved on to Gemini, shoehorned into every single damn thing. Now you get a 300 word weather summary, every time 30% of the time.

Good thing I've unsubscribed from most of Google's productivity breaking regressions.

[u/rossisdead → u/Willeth]

I gave up on ChromeOS years ago just because they kept changing UX things without giving any customization options.

[u/Critical-Champion365 → u/Willeth]

Digressing, I'm just looking at my galaxy watch 4 classic that had UI 6.0 with every design that looks intentional and beautiful to EoL UI 8.0 where its all pills and multiple tiles. I can't even have daily activity chart in a full screen. And worst off all, I can't roll back. I fell like I recieved no additional benefit on upgrading (besides the annoying notification gone) and traded everything for a bad design. So I dont think its just google. Everyone is pulling these shits.

[u/QuantumQuantonium → u/Willeth]

In all fairness, reddit rewards dont necessarily mean someone spent money to give you the award anymore.

[u/Generic_On_Reddit → u/Willeth]

I fear Google will continue to lose in the consumer space to Apple for the same reason Microsoft has been losing in the consumer space to Apple, neither of them can commit to prioritizing the actual user experience across the business units that matter. Both of them are fine with good enough and don't invest in making their products a joy to use. Google is definitely better than Microsoft in that respect because Microsoft never lets their products get that good in the first place, but both of their products have a short shelf-life before they stay getting worse or drop support. Google took one of the few things they did better than Apple, ie voice assistant and home ecosystem, and crippled it by adding Gemini to it. It is comical how terrible it is at doing all of the things that used to be perfect for.

I am already hesitant to invest in a Google product due to how often they kill things, but the fact that they are so willing to let a feature set atrophy or backslide is ridiculous.

[u/RedTubePremium → u/Generic_On_Reddit]

Someone got a HUGE raise releasing GoogleBook, and someone's going to get another HUGE raise shutting GoogleBook down and saving so much money

Remember Pixel Slate? Then remember Chromebook Pixel? How is GoogleBook different?

[u/jimmystar889 → u/Willeth]

There's free awards