Google recently updated the Chrome OS pre-installed Calculator web app and, while the web app itself hasn’t changed that much, its availability has been vastly expanded, so much so that it can now be leveraged on virtually any operating system, both mobile and desktop.
We are not talking about the Google Calculator app for Android, but the version of the Google Calculator app that Chromebook device owners have available for free for years now. The same was developed with Web technology, however, it is a native application that comes pre-installed with Chrome OS.
The Calculator app has an extremely simplified and user-friendly interface, however, besides the initial layout, it also has more advanced functions for geometry and trigonometry. In recent years, the Mountain View house has begun to distance itself from native apps like this on Chromebooks, opting instead, where possible, for web apps or for Android and Linux applications.
An example of this is Google Canvas, which allows users to create simple designs of their own Chromebooks and which are entirely online, so it is not pre-installed and does not require any subsequent downloads by the user.
Since the recent update to Chrome OS 97, Google’s Calculator has also made this leap by becoming fully online. This is made clear by the fact that now, on Chrome OS, when the app is opened, you can briefly see the URL calculator.apps.chrome in the app bar. Although the app is now entirely online, there are no problems for offline use, which is made possible by leveraging Progressive Web App ( PWA ) technology.
From the perspective of owners of Chromebook devices, this transformation of the Google Calculator will not involve any noteworthy changes in terms of usability or available functions. As some users have pointed out, however, there is a small negative side and it is a consequence of the greater minimum width of the app compared to the previous version, which in some contexts could be less comfortable. For the rest, the app is always the same, with the only big difference – for the future – that now Google will be able to update it, and therefore improve any defects, separately from the updates of the entire Chrome OS.
The transformation of the Google Calculator into a web app, however, also entails another interesting consequence: now, like any other Progressive Web App, it can be used and – if desired – even installed on practically any device, whatever its operating system is: Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, it makes no difference.
Of course, each of these operating systems has its own dedicated Calculator application, so it is rather unlikely that the web app than the one for Chrome OS will prove better (to say, on smartphones, in portrait orientation, it is anything but practical to use). However, this grand opening by Google remains interesting.