ChromeOS 137 Adds Immersive Audio and Accessibility Features

With M137, the most recent version of ChromeOS is starting its way to the Stable channel and bringing with it a few intriguing new features. Although there isn’t a single flagship feature, this update offers a fantastic new audio experience for all users in addition to some crucial new capabilities for IT administrators overseeing device fleets and accessibility. Let’s examine the recent developments.

A brand-new, immersive audio experience that eliminates crosstalk for the majority of ChromeOS 137 users, this is the most notable feature. When you’re only utilizing the built-in speakers on your Chromebook, a new “crosstalk cancellation” feature seeks to deliver a far more immersive audio experience.

This feature allows you to “feel the audio surrounding your head instead of coming from the geometric position of the internal speaker,” according to Google’s statement. Similar to a virtual surround sound system, it should enhance whatever audio you listen to, but it will be most apparent when you play games or watch videos with spatialized audio files. Without really plugging anything in, the idea is to provide you with the “all-around direction as if wearing a headset.” We are eager to put this to the test.

For braille users the new accessibility tools for the majority of ChromeOS 137 users, this is the most notable feature. When you’re only utilizing the built-in speakers on your Chromebook, a new “crosstalk cancellation” feature seeks to deliver a far more immersive audio experience.

M137 introduces a few helpful additional controls for IT administrators in businesses and schools:

Face Control Policy: Administrators will be able to exercise more precise organizational-level control over who has access to the Face Control accessibility feature thanks to a new policy called FaceGazeEnabled.

Event-based Log Collection: This feature will increase the effectiveness of device troubleshooting. Administrators will receive a message when something happens, such as an OS crash or an update failure, and Google will only upload the logs that are pertinent to that particular incident, which will make troubleshooting simpler. 

You might not notice ChromeOS 137 on your device right away because, as usual, it will be released gradually over the next few days and weeks. Go to Settings > About ChromeOS > Check for updates to see whether there has been an update. We’re especially interested in the new audio feature, but it’s a good update with something for everyone.