Google to add video editing, productivity apps to Chromebooks

Google is bringing new video editing and productivity features to Chromebooks, a popular computing device amongst students across the world. Over the next few months, Google will roll out new Chromebook features, including video editing tools in the Google Photos app, enhanced app capabilities and features to get organised and get things done.

“Today we’re announcing new features and apps for Chromebook to take your creativity and productivity to the next level. Whether you’re enjoying your favorite music or movies, creating a vacation highlight reel or powering through work, Chromebook lets you do it all with speed, security and ease — right out of the box,” Alexander Kuscher, Director of ChromeOS Software wrote in a blog post.

Creating an end-to-end movie involves multiple video clips, photos, title card and music, which can be time consuming. With Google Photos, the company is revamping movie creation tools to help make high-quality movies with just a few taps. There will be themes for users to select, post which the user will have to add the people (or pets!), and Google Photos will make a movie with both video clips and photos. It will intelligently select the most meaningful moments from your long videos.

There will also be an option to build movie from scratch with the Google Photos movie editor.

Other than the video editor, Google is adding some new apps to the Chromebook for enhancing productivity. With the Gallery app, Google is introducing new PDF editing features to Gallery, that will make it easy to fill out forms, highlight text, sign documents and add text annotations.

This feature will start to roll out next week. Using the new Screencast app, users will be able to record, view and share transcribed videos and presentations, whether it’s a virtual lesson or a how-to video or demo. The Cursive app will capture, edit and organise handwritten notes on stylus-enabled Chromebooks.

In the next few months, the company will also roll out some new organisation and productivity features to help users manage schedule and stay focused, with some new ways to personalise Chromebook.

Worldwide Chromebook shipments fell by 61.9 per cent year-on-year in Q1 2022, closing at 5.1 million units,  according to IDC.

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