{"id":8571,"date":"2026-10-12T20:55:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8571"},"modified":"2026-10-12T20:55:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:55:40","slug":"googlebooks-android-best-worst-notifications-app-cast-file-sharing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8571","title":{"rendered":"Android is the best and worst thing about Googlebooks"},"content":{"rendered":"


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My first week with the new Android-powered laptops has been about as rocky as anyone\u2019s<\/a>, but I\u2019ve slowly learned to like them, even if love still feels a ways off. Every moment that\u2019s impressed me has been thanks to Android, whether I\u2019ve been accessing a native version of a useful app or quickly checking my phone notifications from the laptop user interface.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But man, sometimes it just sucks<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Phone connectivity is flaky, app casting is awkward, and file-sharing seems to be flat-out broken. And that\u2019s just the interaction between a Googlebook and a phone \u2014 I have a whole other set of gripes about the limitations of native Android apps on a $1,000 laptop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If Googlebooks ever become a success, Android is going to get the credit. But if it all goes wrong, that\u2019s exactly where the blame will lie too. So far, success feels a lot further away than failure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"During<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

During setup you can copy every app from your phone, or just a selection.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Googlebook setup process is Android through-and-through. It\u2019s similarly quick, just a few minutes from beginning to end, including time to register biometric logins, log into a Google account, and connect it to a phone to find your apps and backups. There\u2019s a little variation in the exact setup between the Asus and HP models I\u2019ve been testing, but mostly just whether it defaults to installing every<\/em> app from your phone or only the desktop-optimized ones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Things get janky once you\u2019re into the OS, though. Even if you use an Android 17 phone to set up the laptop, it\u2019s unlikely to remain connected afterwards for features like file sharing and app casting. Fully pairing either of my Googlebooks to a phone has required toggling cross-device settings on both devices, multiple restarts, and the occasional prayer, until the two devices find each other. Moving to a new Wi-Fi network broke things for me all over again, requiring a restart of the Googlebook to get the devices back talking to each other \u2014 and yes, they need to be on the same Wi-Fi network to talk, and to have Bluetooth enabled too, so the connection won\u2019t work when you\u2019re offline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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My Asus Googlebook has now formed a pretty reliable connection to an Oppo phone I\u2019ve been reviewing<\/a>, though it still refuses to recognize any other phones; my HP model flits between that Oppo and the Vivo X Fold 6<\/a>, occasionally connecting to both at once. Yesterday, for the first time all week, it connected to my Pixel 11 Pro Fold<\/a>, after both laptops had stubbornly ignored that phone for days \u2014 even though it\u2019s Google\u2019s own hardware.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Downloadable<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Downloadable episodes! On a laptop! This low key might be my favorite thing about Googlebooks.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I\u2019ve loved elements of the Googlebook experience. It\u2019s great being able to access quick, compact, desktop versions of apps I\u2019d normally be stuck using through a web browser on my MacBook. It\u2019s even better that some of those apps have different functionality for being mobile versions: being able to download series from HBO Max or Netflix and watch them offline means a Googlebook could replace my Android tablet, which is mostly just a device for watching movies on planes at this point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But many, many more apps are a headache to use on an Android laptop. Some don\u2019t have desktop-optimized versions \u2014 the mobile version of Slack is truly unworkable in a desktop environment, and Adobe\u2019s Android apps are pale shadows of their desktop selves. Others claim to be \u201cOptimized for desktop\u201d in the Play Store, but in practice that usually means they\u2019ve stretched the UI to fit a desktop scale and included basic mouse and keyboard support \u2014 \u201cbasic\u201d being the operative word, with most not recognizing right-clicks or occasionally shifting into a portrait view. \u201cMade for desktop\u201d seems to be the only Play Store tag that really counts for much, and I\u2019ve only seen it on a handful of apps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Some<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Some apps claim to be \u201cMade for desktop,\u201d everything else is likely to feel at least a little awkward.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Even Google\u2019s own apps are often limited. Chrome is the worst offender, since you\u2019re likely to use it so much. Google insists this is a desktop version of the browser, but it lacks feature parity with other platforms: there\u2019s no support for switching profiles, opening tabs in a split view, or creating custom search engine shortcuts. Those are just the omissions I\u2019ve run into from my daily MacBook workflow, and there are no doubt countless more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And despite Google\u2019s promise that Chromebooks offer the \u201centire Play Store library,\u201d that isn\u2019t entirely true. I\u2019ve already run into two apps that I simply can\u2019t install from the Play Store \u2014 Bluesky and the login authorization tool Okta. It\u2019s not an Intel issue either, as Google alluded to on Monday<\/a>: the Arm-based HP Googlebook also won\u2019t run either app.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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My laptop needs aren\u2019t complex: I spend 90 percent of my time on my work MacBook Air inside Chrome and Slack, and most of the rest in Photoshop or Lightroom. But all four are subpar on a Googlebook right now, and it\u2019s all because they\u2019re fundamentally Android apps that can\u2019t compete with true desktop alternatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If Android apps on your laptop aren\u2019t enough, Googlebooks also let you cast the Android apps on your phone to your laptop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A dedicated app drawer shows everything installed on your connected phone.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Some version of Android app casting or mirroring has been around before on both Windows and Chromebooks. The difference in Google\u2019s implementation is that instead of mirroring the whole phone UI, you cast specific apps, either through a dedicated app drawer in the taskbar or by tapping into a synced notification from your phone. Those apps still run on the phone itself \u2014 which gets a notification that an app is casting \u2014 but are controlled via the PC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s not well-suited to streaming music or video, or running multiple apps at once, but that doesn\u2019t seem to be the intent anyway. Where casting shines is in quickly dipping into an app without reaching for your phone and unlocking it, like updating a payment in the settlement app Splitwise or sending a quick message in WhatsApp. I\u2019ve really enjoyed being able to dive in and out of a phone task from my laptop, while minimizing the risk of getting distracted by Instagram.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Casting is clever and mostly works well, but I think I\u2019ve found it useful because I\u2019m new to the Googlebook and haven\u2019t set every app up yet. Google argues it\u2019s designed for apps you might want to use from your laptop but wouldn\u2019t want to install there, but that\u2019s a pretty short list, especially given that installing an Android app is generally quick, painless, and a minimal drain on storage. Long-term, I\u2019m not sure how often I\u2019d want to cast a mobile app when I could just install a native version, especially since you can\u2019t copy and paste between native apps and cast versions, or access the Googlebook file system when casting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Casting<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Casting Bluesky from the phone just doesn\u2019t work, made worse because the Bluesky app is unavailable for Googlebooks otherwise.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Even when the cross-device connection runs smoothly, some apps \u2014 especially secure ones like my authorization app or banking app \u2014 won\u2019t run. Others try to open but don\u2019t work: my credit card app breaks on bootup, while Bluesky renders text illegibly. Casting some apps even create rendering issues when I next open them back on the actual phone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Then there are the other problems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Continue On lets you start a task on your phone and pick it up on the Googlebook. It\u2019s great when it works, but that\u2019s rare. Only a handful of apps are supported, and even those trigger inconsistently. It works when I open a Google Drive document, but only sporadically in Gmail, and so far never for Calendar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Notifications are powerful, but messy, with phone and laptop notifications mixed together. Phone notifications open via app casting, but the system gets confused easily. For various reasons, right now my Slack notifications open a casted phone app rather than the native Googlebook app; WhatsApp notifications don\u2019t come through even from my phone; and I can either get notifications for my work Gmail account or my personal one, but not both at once.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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File transfer is entirely broken. While I can see my phone\u2019s storage as a drive inside the file manager, accessing those files is near-impossible. It can take minutes to load up the file system, and minutes more to open or transfer a single 5MB photo. It\u2019s completely unusable. This should be fixable, at least. Quick Share \u2014 Android\u2019s equivalent to AirDrop \u2014 is also supported, and the same files that take minutes over file transfer share in seconds with Quick Share.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This is what I usually see when I try to open an image from my phone\u2019s file system.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And if I want to copy a file to the laptop, I get to watch this progress bar for a few minutes. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s the Googlebook in a nutshell: the idea is wonderful, the execution entirely lacking. A week in, I\u2019m learning to work around the kinks and headaches of this odd little OS, finding ways to make the most of it and to maximize those moments when my laptop and my phone just work together. When it clicks, it feels like the payoff to a decade and a half of using Android every day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Right now, that feeling doesn\u2019t hit nearly as often as it needs to, and certainly not enough to make up for the countless times Android just feels broken in this form factor. The question is whether Google \u2014 a company with a deserved reputation for giving up when the going gets tough \u2014 has the commitment to see this through and turn things around. It\u2019ll need its own teams to fix what\u2019s broken, third-party developers to pledge support en masse, and a rethink of how to integrate native apps with casting from a phone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When I first saw the Googlebooks a few weeks ago, I really thought one might be my next laptop<\/a>. After spending a week with them, I\u2019m not so sure. I certainly wouldn\u2019t buy a Googlebook as they are right now, but I wouldn\u2019t rule out an Android laptop in the future \u2014 the execution just needs to catch up to the idea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Photography by Dominic Preston \/ The Verge<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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