It looks like that Android app access to USB drives in Chrome OS is a little bit closer than anticipated. When I wrote about this feature coming to Chrome OS back in April, it looked like the feature would land in the Chrome 68 build which isn’t due until July. However, in the latest Chrome 67 build for the Chrome OS Beta Channel, the feature is available and SD cards or USB drives show up as a storage option.
The feature is a big deal for those who use Android apps in Chrome OS. It means that you can store documents, music or videos on an external drive and not eat up what is often a small amount of built-in storage on your Chromebook.
For those who have a Chromebook in the Chrome OS Beta Channel, if you insert a SD card or attached a USB drive to your Chromebook, you should see it as a storage option in Settings.
Since the feature has moved up to Chrome 67 is likely that we will see it arrive in June when that train is expected to move up to the Stable Channel. That could change of course and the feature could remain experimental for a build or two as the Chromium team within Google confirm that the feature is working as expected. But the good news is, by all indication, the feature isn’t far away from being available to everyone.
