Google has constantly been updating its UI for a number of different features over the past few years. From the large operating systems such as UI/UX to certain apps, Google is no stranger to changing certain interfaces like with its more recent Calculator.
Google Moves Away from Legacy Chrome Apps
According to the story by XDA-developers, Google has slowly been moving away from legacy Chrome apps. This is because the platform-agnostic Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are expected to be a capable and appealing replacement for them.
The Calculator app on the Chrome OS is an example of a legacy application. However, starting with the more recent Chrome OS 97 update, the app has been turned to a PWA that can be used on the users' browser any time.
Calculator Progressive Web App
The new Progressive Web app is reportedly hosted at calculator.apps.chrome, according to an article by 9to5Google. It has a web manifest file, along with an icon and offline caching. This allows users with Chromium-based browsers to easily install it to their devices.
It should be noted that the app also works just fine with any particular web browser and functions quite identical to the old Calculator. The Calculator has basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division available.
The app also features other more complicated functions, which include logarithms, square roots, and exponents.
Calculator Styled to Match Older Material Design
Even though the Calculator app can now be used in any device with a web browser, it is still clearly intended to be used on the computer. In fact, resizing the window to smaller sizes or even changing to portrait orientation would result in certain controls being hidden.
The calculator remains styled in order to match the older Material Design. This comes with a corner wipe effect that appears when users click on the Clear button. Google has yet to update it in order to match the more recent Material You design language.
Read Also: Google Self Share Makes File Transferring Easy for Chromebook or Android Users
Chrome OS Calculator Tools
Since the app is just a calculator, however, there might not really be a need to perfectly match the Material You design language. In addition to this, there are also a number of other math and calculator tools already available on the Chrome OS should the Calculator not be able to do what users need it to accomplish.
This reportedly comes after a number of other changes and improvements that came to the Chrome OS over the course of the past few months.
These changes and improvements include the Shelf Share feature, which is currently in development, and the enhanced integration with Android phones. Camera improvements and more voices for Select-to-speak are also included as part of the changes and improvements made to the Chrome OS.
The platform is reportedly also dealing with a little more competition since its long time competitor, Microsoft, has also pushed its Windows 11 SE in K-12 classrooms, which is where Chromebooks have been dominating for a good part of the last 10 years.
Related Article: Instagram Creators can Now Paywall Stories and Livestream | Instagram Premium?
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian B.
