The continued interweaving of Chrome OS and Android looks to be taking another step forward, but it will be a while for this one. A new commit points to Chrome OS getting Android-like lock screen notifications. In theory, it would function much like they do on Android, allowing for the message center to be visible while your Chromebook is locked.
The new ability would come via a flag that would be aptly named enable-lock-screen-notification and would give users notifications on their lock screen for the user that is logged into the device.
Further details in the commit point out that a Settings button would not need to be visible on the lock screen message center and a few other tweaks.
At this point, this all seems to be in the definition stage. There are a lot of commits and code snippets associated with this new flag going on. The question is when, and you always have to ask if, we will see this in the code base. Right now, it doesn’t appear to be even in the pre-alpha Canary channel. Assuming that the code work gets completed and we see it in the next Canary build, Chrome 68, that would mean a July 31st release date to the Stable Channel.
That, of course, is assuming that it actually makes it to the next Canary build. It could well take longer and would are looking at a Fall release of the feature. Either way, it is exciting to consider the possibility of lock screen notifications. I, for one, would love them.
