Chromebook customization could soon get a major upgrade

Chromebooks are getting a change for the better in a big way with the ability to fully redefine keyboard shortcuts having been spotted in testing with Chrome OS.

About Chromebooks (opens in new tab) spotted that the latest beta version of Chrome OS 111 contains a revamped keyboard shortcuts app that allows you to remap those shortcuts as you please.

Now, this functionality isn’t working yet – you can change the shortcuts in the new panel, but they aren’t actually enacted, because this is still early testing for the feature.

In fact, the shortcuts app is still hidden to testers in the Chrome OS 111 beta, and you have to mess about with some experimental flags to find the relevant panel.

Even so, it’s great to see that the ability to customize your own shortcuts is incoming for Chrome OS.

Analysis: An easier life for people migrating to a Chromebook

This isn’t a great surprise as for quite some time now there have been reports that Google is planning to bring this functionality to Chrome OS.

At the moment, it’s only possible to redefine a few basic elements of the keyboard (like switching the function of the ‘search’ key for example). With this change, you’ll have full rein over the entire library of shortcuts (in theory anyway, if the final implementation pans out as it looks now).

This means those who are more used to a Windows or macOS system can keep their favorite shortcuts from those platforms by remapping them under Chrome OS, making their everyday computing life easier on a Chromebook (perhaps one that they’ve just bought which is completely new to them).

It’s possible that this feature has been in previous beta versions of Chrome OS, and About Chromebooks has only just found it. So, Google might have been playing around with the concept in the background for a while now, with any luck, and we’ll see it actually debut in beta soon enough, with any luck – and then in release thereafter.

Via Tom’s Hardware (opens in new tab)