Enabling users to send a page to their phones or tablets

Mar 13, 2012 14:03 GMT  ·  By

Google is working on even more integration between the Android version of Chrome and the desktop one. While the two browsers not only share most features and code and also sync data between them, there's still room for improvement.

The Chrome to Mobile extension, an official add-on from the Chrome team, enables users to send a page or even a copy that can be seen offline to their mobile device.

But Google is working on building the feature into Chrome proper. It's still a work in progress, but it's coming.

"List the user's mobile devices via the Cloud Print server. Add a page action icon when the service reports 1+ devices. Add a bubble to send the current page URL / MHTML snapshot," the feature's description reads.

"The bubble shows a radio group for multiple devices. (or it shows a single device as part of the title label)," the description continues. "The bubble also shows a checkbox to send an offline copy. Send URLFetcher requests to GET/POST the URL/Snapshot. The bubble shows 'Sending...'/'Sent'/ error request status."

The feature requires Chrome to be installed on both ends, which means that it will only work on Android 4.0 devices.

But if you have the Chrome for Android Beta installed, your desktop Chrome will be able to detect that and display the option of sending the page you're on to your phone, via a small button next to the bookmark star in the OmniBox.

The extension also has the ability of sending a map straight to the Google Maps app or a video to the YouTube app. It doesn't seem like this will be available in the built-in Chrome feature, just yet.

Of course, you can already sync open tabs between browsers. But you have to have the desktop browser running for the feature to work. Chrome to Mobile ensures that the page you want will be waiting for you on your phone or tablet.