At the ongoing I/O 2021 developer conference, Google has made a ton of announcements around its various services, including Search, Maps, Android, WearOS, and more. Google is also expanding the integration of Android with Chrome OS. Customers already have access to features like Wi-Fi Sync and Smart Lock, allowing users to seamlessly connect and unlock their Chromebook device with their smartphone.

A couple of months back during Chromebook's 10th birthday, Google had launched Phone Hub, a tool that lets you manage your Android device even better using your Chromebook. This allowed users to check and respond to messages, turn on mobile hotspot, or just pin-point their phone’s location via a Chromebook. Today Google has announced another feature for deep integration of Android with Chrome OS. Phone Hub will soon provide access to recently taken photos from your Android phone. By doing so, users can quickly edit a picture that they took so they can quickly edit and share it with friends or colleagues, without having to send it via email to yourself. This is similar to what was reported back in February where certain commits on Chromium Gerrit were spotted hinting at the feature. According to a preview shared by Google on its official blog, pulling on the Phone Hub tab will give access to your recent photos. However, we still need Google to confirm whether the same will be available via Chrome OS’s file manager.

Google could learn a thing or two from Microsoft's Your Phone app for Windows. Apart from everything that Phone Hub offers on Chrome OS, Your Phone lets you link your Android device to a Windows PC and perform a variety of functions like making and receiving calls, manage your Android phone's notifications, access to mobile apps, drag files between your PC and phone, and a lot more.