{"id":884402,"date":"2026-10-16T14:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T14:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884402\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T14:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T14:06:10","slug":"googlebook-review-android-on-a-laptop-is-still-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884402\/","title":{"rendered":"Googlebook review: Android on a laptop is still Android"},"content":{"rendered":"

Setting up a Googlebook is a snap for Android users. Just like configuring a new phone, you can scan a QR code with your current phone to copy your accounts, data, and apps over automatically. You can be up and running in minutes, and your phone will integrate deeply with the OS. Well, provided it runs Android 17. That\u2019s going to be a sticking point, since most phones don\u2019t have that update yet.<\/p>\n

With Google\u2019s \u201cBetter Together\u201d services, a Googlebook can access files on your Android 17 phone, sync notifications, remember where you left off in apps, and even mirror apps from your phone. This all sounds great, and when it works, the experience can be good. However, there are various limitations and bugs that get in the way.<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Googlebooks can stream apps, mirror notifications, and access storage from your Android phone.<\/p>\n

\n Credit:
\n Ryan Whitwam\n <\/p>\n

\n Googlebooks can stream apps, mirror notifications, and access storage from your Android phone.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/p>\n

Ryan Whitwam<\/p>\n

To remain in contact, the phone and Googlebook need to be on the same Wi-Fi network, and switching to other networks can break the connection in annoying ways. Even when the devices appear to have a solid connection, I have rarely seen any hint of Google\u2019s Continue On feature, which is supposed to let you pick up where you left off in a phone app. Mirroring phone apps on your laptop can also be handy, but the performance is varying degrees of bad, and apps with system-level security features won\u2019t work at all. You are also limited to one app at a time, and they won\u2019t stay open in the background.<\/p>\n

Accessing the files on your phone from the laptop is a good idea, but the transfer speed is often sluggish. More annoyingly, the connection only goes one way\u2014the Files app on the Googlebook can see your phone, but the Google Files app on a phone can\u2019t see the Googlebook. Speaking of the Files app, this is emblematic of how far behind Google is with desktop software. The app lacks basic things like tabs and support for network shares. It\u2019s nice that it can access my phone, but it feels very restrictive if you\u2019re used to Finder or Windows Explorer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Setting up a Googlebook is a snap for Android users. Just like configuring a new phone, you can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-884402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}