Right now, Googlebooks make more sense for Google than they do for users.
After trying for years to bring Android features to Chromebooks, Google decided to start over with Android as the foundation for a new laptop operating system. The first wave of Googlebooks are high-end laptops (priced $900 and up), with Google pitching them as the ultimate computers for Android enthusiasts.
But in their current form, Googlebooks are a disjointed mess, with websites and apps that don’t work quite right and AI features that aren’t fully fleshed out. While having a single operating system and app platform across laptops and mobile devices might make life easier for Google, it doesn’t yet translate to a better experience than the Chromebooks that Google aims to replace.
Android’s not ready for laptops
For the past month I’ve been using Acer’s Googlebook 14, which is the cheapest Googlebook at $900, and the only one whose touchscreen flips around into tablet mode. I have no major complaints about the hardware, which has a featherweight 2.51-pound chassis, a rich 120 Hz 3K OLED screen, and a smooth trackpad (albeit a “diving board” type whose click mechanism stiffens at the top edge).
My frustrations are more on the software side, where Android isn’t ready to carry a real laptop workload.
While Google is pushing developers to optimize their Android apps for large screens, keyboards, and trackpads, Google itself hasn’t always bothered to do so. The preloaded version of Gmail, for instance, is not an optimized Android app, but rather a web-based desktop app powered by the Chrome browser. Same goes for Google Docs, Drive, Meet, and YouTube. Tapping the menu button in these apps reveals a “Running in Chrome” disclaimer, and any Chrome extensions you install will apply to these apps as well.
This wouldn’t be a major concern if the web apps worked the way they’re supposed to. In Gmail, though, cursor hover controls don’t work, so you can’t quickly trash or archive messages line by line in the inbox. In Google Drive, documents open in a Chrome browser tab, while the same documents open in their own windows via Google Docs or Sheets. And if you try to select text in Google Docs using the touchscreen, the comment button pops up directly over the right text selector, making it unreachable.
Third-party Android apps can also have issues. Signing into Slack bounces me out to a Chrome tab, which then fails to authenticate back inside the Android app, so the only way to gain access is by manually entering a URL and password for each workplace. Even then, Slack’s Android app is poorly optimized, without the desktop version’s persistent sidebar.
Video apps still feel unfinished on Googlebooks as well. Those that Google deems “optimized for desktop,” such as Netflix and Disney+, will automatically open in full screen, which is jarring but at least fits the use case of watching video. Others, such as Fox One and NFL, open in a floating desktop window, and clicking their full screen icons accomplishes nothing. You’re actually supposed to ignore that button, highlight the maximize button in the window controls, then click the little “Full Screen” icon. Optimized or not, none of these apps support always-visible picture-in-picture mode like their mobile counterparts.
One last nitpick, admittedly a niche one: Bookmarklets don’t work on Googlebooks. I keep more than dozen of these in my browser’s address bar, which allows me to launch site-specific searches, create page excerpts, find archived versions of web pages, and remove “sticky” page elements. Not being able to use them on the Googlebook is a reminder that you’re not quite getting a full Chrome desktop experience.
The app situation will likely improve over time. When I started using the Googlebook, it wouldn’t let me install the Bluesky app and directed me to the web version. Now the app is available. Google Docs has also gained the ability to mark individual documents for offline use, which wasn’t possible at the outset. The Google Play Store has a tiered labeling system—“Optimized for Desktop,” “Compatible with Desktop,” “Better on the Website”—so you know what to expect, but for now the ecosystem is a work in progress.
Android synergies in progress
Googlebooks do have some neat features for Android users, the best of which is being able to access your phone’s files directly through the laptop’s Files app. There’s also “cross-device continuity,” which doesn’t work with many apps, but lets you quickly continue editing a message in Gmail or a document in Google Docs after opening it up on your phone.
App casting is rougher. If you have a phone running Android 17, this lets you view your phone’s apps through a Googlebook without installing them, and while this might be useful in some scenarios, it’s a subpar experience with jerky scrolling and occasional formatting issues. It can also lead to annoyances, like when a phone notification pops up on the Googlebook, and tapping it takes you into the janky app-casting version instead of the one that’s installed on your computer.
Android as a desktop operating system will also inherently pose some limitations. AI apps like ChatGPT and Claude lack the device control and folder-based file permissions that their desktop apps offer, and there are no command bar apps akin to Raycast for Windows and MacOS. The relative simplicity of an Android-based laptop may be a positive for some, but for me it’s a hindrance.
Too many Geminis
Beyond just catering to Android enthusiasts, Google is pitching Googlebooks as a premier surface for its Gemini AI assistant. In practice this means there are four main ways to invoke Gemini from the computer:
- Wiggling your mouse cursor
- Saying “Hey Google”
- Clicking the Gemini icon in the dock
- Clicking the Gemini icon in the Chrome taskbar
While having many entry points to Gemini makes sense, the execution feels disjointed. If you open the full Gemini app while a pop-up chat window is already open, for instance, the chat window closes and the full app cuts off your conversation, switching to a new one. The Chrome sidebar and pop-up window are also separate, so conversations in one don’t carry over to the other.
Those little inconsistencies tripped me up constantly, as I’d have to keep careful track of which conversation was happening where based on how I’d originally invoked it. Instead of just cramming AI touch points into different parts of the operating system, Google needs to do a better job of tying them all together.
There’s also a missed opportunity for Gemini to act more as an AI agent. While desktop AI apps on other platforms can work directly with files and folders on your computer, that’s currently not possible with Gemini on Googlebooks.
What’s next for Googlebooks?
Even if Googlebooks don’t feel ready now, they carry an air of inevitability. Google has already indicated that it will phase out Chrome OS by 2034, and it has outlined some vague plans for existing Chromebooks to turn into Googlebooks. Presumably that means Googlebooks will move down-market over time to include the kind of lower-end machines that defined the Chromebook business.
In the meantime, the question is whether Google will sufficiently invest in Googlebooks to address their weaknesses, instead of letting the project languish as it so often does (see: Stadia, Reader, its many attempts at social networking). One reason GoogleBooks feel so unpolished right now is because of Google’s hot-and-cold relationship with Android tablets, leading to a lack of app developer buy-in on devices with larger screens. With Google, there’s always a risk that it gets distracted by the next shiny object and leaves important work undone.
You can see how Googlebooks might eventually make sense: Combine a desktop-class Chrome experience with true Android app support, with easily available AI to help with research and automation. Maybe Google will get there someday, but first it needs to get more of the basics right.