What is phone hub
If you’re an Android and Chromebook user, rejoice because Google just made it possible for users to get some much-needed integration between those devices. Said integration comes by way of the Phone Hub on Chrome OS. This new feature allows you to silence and locate your phone, receive notifications from your phone to your Chromebook and even open tabs from Android Chrome on Chrome OS.
What is an Android phone hub?
The “Phone Hub” feature was introduced in Chrome OS 89. It allows you to more seamlessly move between your phone and laptop. That includes synced notifications and controlling certain things on your phone from your Chromebook. RELATED: How to Link an Android Phone to a Windows 10 PC With Microsoft's "Your Phone" App.
How do you set up a phone hub?
Turn on or off Phone Hub features
On your Chromebook, select the time.
Select Settings .
Under 'Connected devices', select your phone.
Turn on or off features: Toggle Phone Hub on or off. Toggle the individual feature on or off.
How do I turn off phone hub?
If the newest feature on Chromebook doesn't excite you, then you can simply disable Phone Hub on Chromebook. For this, go to Chrome OS Settings > Connected Devices > Your device and then switch OFF the toggle adjacent to 'Phone Hub'. This should remove the phone icon from Chromebook's Shelf at the bottom.
And that’s all there is to integrating your Android and Chrome OS devices with Phone Hub. Hopefully, in future releases, Google will see to it to add more features to the Hub.
However, I will say that the notifications feature doesn’t seem to be working as expected. This is quite disappointing, as it would make the integration far more productive if notifications that pop up on the Android phone would automatically appear on the Chromebook. Although you will probably see notifications (such as those from Hangouts) appear in the standard notification system, it’s hard to say if they are facilitated by Phone Hub. It might behoove the developers to move all notifications from Android to the Phone Hub popup, so as not to confuse users.
Even so, in its infancy, Phone Hub is an incredibly handy tool. You can toggle certain things on your phone, such as Hotspot and Silence, locate your device and share open tabs. All the developers have to do is give the notifications a bit of attention and this feature could be a real deal-maker for Android users.