Googlebooks are official, bringing Gemini Intelligence, Android apps, and a new vision for laptops

The first Chromebooks were announced on May 11, 2011, and today marks exactly 15 years and one day since that milestone. It’s no wonder Google chose this date to finally announce that its plans to merge ChromeOS and Android into a unified operating system are finally coming to fruition.

At The Android Show I/O Edition, Google unveiled a whole new category of laptops called Googlebooks. Yes, that’s one word, “Googlebooks,” just like “Chromebooks,” and the erstwhile “Pixelbook.”

So what exactly will Googlebooks bring to the table? First and foremost, no, Google isn’t announcing its own laptop. At least, not yet. Googlebooks, just like Chromebooks, will be a category of premium laptops built by third-party brands.

To begin with, Google is tapping five industry names to make the first set of Googlebooks. These include: Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Curiously, Samsung and its Galaxy Books are missing from this initial list. That doesn’t mean Samsung will never make a device stamped with the Googlebooks seal of approval. In fact, a recent leak suggests otherwise.

Nevertheless, we are nowhere near getting any details about the hardware that’ll power the new Googlebooks. All we know is that the first laptops will be built with premium materials, coming in a variety of “shapes and sizes,” and will feature a signature glowbar (pictured below) that Google says will be both functional and beautiful.

Googlebooks: Confirmed features and availability

Today’s reveal can be seen as a soft launch for Googlebooks. The company isn’t giving away everything we want to know about this new category of laptops, but there are a few interesting bits Google has left us with in the lead-up to the launch of the first devices later this fall.

As expected, Googlebooks have been built on the Android technology stack. While the company didn’t go so far as to reveal the marketing name for the operating system powering these laptops, it’s all but obvious that this is Google’s long-rumored Aluminium OS project.

Gemini Intelligence and Magic Pointer

Gemini sits at the core of the Googlebooks experience. The same Gemini Intelligence that’s coming to Android devices is also baked into these laptops to deliver personalized and proactive help when you need it.

One of the most fun examples of how Gemini will help you with the most basic tasks on Googlebooks is Google’s new Magic Pointer. It’s a Gemini-powered cursor that brings the AI right to your fingertips. When you wiggle the cursor on the screen, depending on what you’re doing, it’ll display various contextual options for interacting with your content.

For instance, you can wiggle the Magic Pointer over two images — like an image of your living room and a lamp you’re looking to buy — and it’ll give you an option to visualize them together. You can also select anything to ask Gemini (like Circle to Search), compare items in images, point at a date in an email to set up a meeting, and more.

Create My Widget

Moreover, the Gemini-powered Create My Widget feature coming to Pixel and Samsung phones later this year will also be present on Googlebooks. That means you can describe the home screen widget you want in natural language, and Gemini will create it for you.

Gemini can also search the internet and connect your Google apps like Gmail and Calendar, to create a personalized dashboard.

Cast My Apps

Googlebooks are built on Android, so naturally, Google has paid a lot of attention to how you interact with your phone apps on the bigger screen.

These laptops will come with a feature called Cast My Apps, which works very much like iPhone mirroring on Macs. Cast My Apps will allow Android 17 users one-click access to their phone’s apps on Googlebooks.

While the laptops will obviously run their own apps, users will also be able to access their phone’s apps without downloading anything. This means you won’t have to leave your laptop screens or go back and forth between two devices.

Quick Access

File access is another area where Googlebooks will tie in connected Android phones. Users will be able to seamlessly view and interact with files on their phones from their Googlebook’s file browser. The feature supports adding, searching for, and downloading files across devices.

Google has certainly given us a lot to whet the appetite, with Googlebooks seeming like the Chromebook alternative we’ve been waiting on for years.

As for what happens to Chromebooks, Google once again confirmed that it’ll continue to support Chromebooks throughout their 10-year lifespan. That said, the company explicitly refrained from confirming whether it’ll launch new Chromebooks going forward or whether support for existing devices is all that it’ll provide.