Google Brings Chrome App Launcher To Windows
Google on Wednesday announced a significant bridging of the gap between Chrome and Chrome OS: the app launcher, a little window that features all your apps in one place. The company has ported the dedicated “home for your apps” from Chrome OS to its Chrome browser.
Available now in a developer preview, the launcher experience is similar to that available on Chrome OS. Users can scroll their mouse over the Chrome icon on the task bar and be provided with a list of Chrome apps to launch them quickly.
In the developer preview, Google has included its own Chrome web apps such as Gmail and YouTube, as well as packaged Chrome apps downloaded by users from the Chrome Web Store. Packaged apps deliver an experience as capable as a native app, written in HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS – usually meant to work offline.
As of now the app launcher is available only for Windows, but the Chrome team said the feature would come to Mac OS X and Linux soon.