Google is experimenting with a touch-first full screen app launcher for Chromebook that it hopes will bridge the gap between traditional web-based apps and Android mobile apps.

“The Chrome OS team is experimenting with a touch-friendly version of the launcher in the Canary channel,” Chromium evangelist François Beaufort revealed. (Thanks to Android Police for the tip.)

To see it in action, you need to enable the following flag via the address bar:

chrome://flags/#enable-fullscreen-app-list

Then, press the Search key, which works a bit like the Windows key on Windows PCs: It displays the app launcher, instead of a Start menu.

Beaufort provides a nice video rundown of the new app launcher as well. From what I can see, this UI should work well for keyboard and touch users. It looks pretty sharp.

Tagged with Chrome, Chrome OS, Chromebook