Google's Recorder App Coming to Chromebooks with AI-Powered Features

Google's Recorder app is coming to all Chromebooks with the next ChromeOS update

ChromeOS 129 is bringing a clever Galaxy Chromebook Plus feature to older laptops Key Takeaways Google will release a new Recorder app for Chromebooks with ChromeOS 130. The new app will offer offline transcriptions, AI summaries, speaker identification, and more. Only Chromebook Plus devices will get AI-generated summaries, while all Chromebooks will receive other features. The new Recorder app will allow users to capture internal and external audio, offering playback controls and transcription exports. It is expected to be available later this month. Google Recorder on Pixel devices is a handy tool that offers real-time transcription summaries within the app. The tool uses Google's on-device Gemini Nano LLM to process upto 15-minute-long recordings on-device, with Google's latest Pixel 9 series flagships bumping the duration up to 40 minutes. Now, Google is set to unveil a brand-new Recorder app, but not for its smartphones. Related Google Recorder has fixed its biggest 'AI summaries' problem, but there's a catch The fix is exclusive to the Pixel 9 series (for now) As highlighted by 9to5Google, the Mountain View, California-based tech giant will roll out a new Recorder app to Chromebooks with the upcoming ChromeOS 130 update (expected this month). For reference, with ChromeOS 129, Chromebooks gained a new shortcut for the Quick Insert key, alerts when a peripheral like a keyboard or mouse has been added, new brightness controls within the Settings app, paired with a Live Translate feature. With ChromeOS 130, the new Recorder app will bring functionality like offline transcriptions, speaker identification, AI summaries based on transcripts, though not all features would make their way to all Chromebooks. Chromebook Plus users get a bonus feature Related Best Chromebook Plus in 2024 Find the Chromebook Plus that gives you extra 1 AI-generated transcript summaries will be exclusive to Chomebook Plus devices, with all other features landing on all Chromebooks that are eligible to receive Chrome130. 9to5Google suggests that users with eligible Chromebook Plus devices will need to download a 2GB model to make use of AI summaries, while offline transcription would require a 100MB model download. The Recorder app will be able to capture internal and external audio to generate transcripts, though speaker identification within transcripts will initially be limited to English (US), and it is unclear if and when more languages might be added. Close As seen in the screenshots above, the app will offer a Material You design, complete with playback controls, including an option to adjust the playback speed between .25x and 2x, one to search through transcripts, seek forward or backward by ten seconds, and more. Users would also be able to resize the app, as highlighted in the second screenshot. Further, recordings will be stored locally, though users will have the option to export them, alongside .txt format transcripts. We'll have more on the new app once we're able to get our hands on it later this month. Related ChromeOS 129 is bringing a clever Galaxy Chromebook Plus feature to older laptops Get Samsung's new Quick Insert key with a shortcut

Your Chromebook might soon get one of the Google Pixel 9's best features

Google's Recorder app on the Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro is one of its best AI-enhanced apps - we say as much in our Google Pixel 9 Pro review - thanks to its up to 40-minute-long real-time transcriptions. And soon a version of it will be coming to the best Chromebooks via the next ChromeOS 130 update. That's according to 9to5Google, which has revealed that the tool won't just be coming to top-of-the-line Chromebook Plus devices - although these will get a few unique AI features, reportedly including a helpful offline speech-to-text tool that can function in real time on top of the usual voice-recording capabilities. With a Chromebook Plus machine you'll also get access to an on-device AI that can generate transcript summaries so It's easier for you to flick through your notes later. To use these transcription tools on a Chromebook Plus you'll apparently need to download an approximately 2GB AI model, while users of non-Plus Chromebooks will need to download a 100MB model to access the more limited recorder tools. ChromeOS 130 doesn't yet have a firm release date, but it's "Expected October 2024" per Google's official ChromeOS releases page. So we hopefully won't be waiting long for this new feature and update 130's other upgrades. Best of all, because it looks like the transcriptions and recordings happen on-device, it should be more private and secure than sending your voice notes to a server to have an AI type them up, though if you do want to export your recordings and transcriptions manually you can. The only downside of the ChromeOS Recorder app will be that at launch it'll only understand US English - so it won't be able to help you if you speak a different language, and there's no word yet on when support for more languages will be added. It's also unclear if one of ChromeOS 130's other features for Chromebook Plus devices - 'Studio-style mic', which uses AI to make you sound clearer by reducing noise from your microphone - will be used by the recorder tool. It's possible, but currently it's only linked to new video-call tools, so it could be that it won't help clean up your voice recordings for now - we'll have to wait and see when ChromeOS 130 rolls out later this month.

All Chromebook users will get the Chrome OS Recorder app

The audio recorder will offer recording, transcription, the ability to export text and audio, and more. The release of Chrome OS 130 is approaching, with a rollout expected to happen at the end of October. When that update launches, it will bring a new audio recording app. Although we were aware of this incoming app, it appears it won't be limited to Chromebook Plus devices. Chromebook users will soon gain access to a Recorder app. According to 9to5Google, the app will be available for both Chromebook and Chromebook Plus models, but the version destined for Plus devices will have a few extra goodies. The app has a dual-column layout similar to the Pixel Recorder app, is fully resizeable, and flaunts Google's Material You design. It will reportedly be a 100MB download for Chromebooks and a 2GB download for Plus models. On Chromebooks, you'll be able to record audio and get real-time transcriptions, even when offline. You'll also be able to search through transcripts, adjust playback speed, and export text and audio outside the app. As for Chromebook Plus devices, you get everything just mentioned plus AI summaries of recordings based on the transcript. These summaries tell you everything you need to know about the audio in three bullet points. The AI will also provide suggestions for the title. This isn't the only feature coming to Chromebooks later this month. It was revealed that we can also expect things like a "Help me read" feature for PDFs and some tweaks to camera performance for video calls.