The other night I did some couch-based web browsing on the Acer Chromebook Spin 713. Flip back into presentation mode (lid opened 270 degrees) and on my lap, the 13.5-inch touchscreen does a fantastic job of creating a solid canvas for web content and Chrome OS with this full horsepower is buttery smooth with all new tablet gestures and navigation swipe. While most convertibles make terrible tablets, an on-the-lap stroke experience on the couch is actually quite fun to use. If you have a convertible Chromebook, I highly recommend it.
However, since I was researching a few things, I had to call up some split-screen action to reference a few things side by side. When I started navigating with both windows, I had a moment where I had to go back in my panel right and for a second I was not sure how to do it. For those who are unaware, home and back on Chromebooks in tablet mode have both been replaced by gesture navigation: swipe from the left side of the screen to go back, swipe up from the bottom to go home. Like I said above, on the Acer Spin 713 it works very well and is fun.
However, while in split screen mode, that rear view only applies to the left panel. Of course, it would be weird if it affected both panels at the same time, but I was also a bit lost on how to navigate back in the right panel (I was in an app, not a web browser for the record). With no buttons and no apparent gestures to do so, I thought for a moment that I was getting a big stanza from the Chrome OS team. I was pretty wrong.
In fact, the same swip-in-from-left steering wheel works on both sides of the multitasking view, and it’s shockingly good too. Once in your split screen setup, you can swipe from anywhere to the right on that black bar in the center of the screen and you will get a ‘return’ navigation. The best part is that this drive does not require a ton of precision and I was able to execute it every time I went for it, although I have big fingers and tend to have UI elements ‘fat finger’ from time to time.
As the tablet mode of Chrome OS continues to grow and grow in its fluidity and capabilities, small nuances like this will become increasingly important. With Android and Chrome OS relying heavily on a back button in the pre-gesture era, a solid way to pull off this essential navigation gesture for every part of the OS is very important. Kudos to Google and the Chrome OS team for absolutely rereading while we did not search.
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