These 7 tips will make you a Chromebook power user

Android users running the March 2021 update of the Chrome operating system can enjoy an array of features such as responding to text messages, monitoring the phone’s battery life, and opening recent browsing tabs from the phone on the Chromebook instead.

To enable these features, head into Settings (clock > gear icon: you know the drill). On the main Settings page, there’s a heading called “Connected devices” now. Click the button to set up your Android phone, enter your credentials, and you’ll be up and running.

The next time you want to share your Android phone’s mobile data, just click the clock in the lower-right corner and click the network icon. You should see your phone as an option under the “Mobile data” heading along with nearby Wi-Fi networks.

If you have an iPhone or you don’t want to directly control your Android phone, you can simply head into your phone’s data-sharing settings, establish a Wi-Fi network on the phone, and select it from the Network section on your Chromebook after clicking on the clock in the lower-right corner.

Instructions for establishing a mobile hotspot using an iPhone can be found here; instructions for Android can be found here.

To Chromebook or not to Chromebook?

If you read these tips and you’re now thinking, “Hey! I, too, want to feel the elation of Chromebook ownership, but I don’t yet own a Chromebook,” you can follow these helpful steps by a handsome Fast Company contributor to turn an old laptop into a Chromebook.

And if you’ve had enough of all this Chromebook business, you can follow these equally helpful steps by the same handsome man detailing how to get your Chromebook ready to sell.