Chrome 155 Googlebook turns any website into its own app

Chrome 155 lets you install any webpage as an app by hand, straight from the browser, so it opens in its own window instead of a tab. Previously, the Install option only appeared on sites that included an installable web manifest, a small file that tells the browser a site is ready to act like an app. Pages without one could not be installed at all.

Google says limiting installs that way was a deliberate choice, but it changed course after hearing feedback from users. The update reached Googlebooks through the Google Play Store, which is how Chrome gets updated on these machines, in the middle of October.

The steps take under a minute once you have Chrome 155:

1. Open Chrome on your Googlebook and go to the site you want as an app.
2. Open the Chrome menu at the top right, pick Save and share, then choose Install and create shortcut.
3. On some sites you will also see an Install button at the right edge of the address bar, which does the same job.
4. Confirm by selecting Install, then finish any prompts that appear on screen.

One catch: if you made a shortcut for a site before this update, it still behaves like an old browser-tab link. Google’s advice is to delete that shortcut and install the page again using the steps above, so you get the new app behavior.

Sites you install this way show up in the app launcher alongside your Android apps. From there you can pin them to the taskbar or the home screen, and they run in Chrome behind the scenes.

Because they still use Chrome, they share the things you would expect from the browser: your Google account sign-in, cookies, the permissions you have granted each site, and any browser extensions you have added. In practice that means you stay logged in, and an extension you rely on in a tab still works in the app window.

The same release also changes Chrome’s Settings page on Googlebooks. It used to take over the whole screen, the way it does on a phone. Now it opens in its own tab, so you can keep a webpage visible while you change settings.

A Googlebook is Google’s new kind of laptop, built by partners including Lenovo, Dell, Acer, HP and Asus, and running Googlebook OS, which has Android at its core with Chrome and some ChromeOS-style touches on top. It is meant as the next step after the Chromebook, with Gemini AI built in and tight links to Android phones.

The weak spot so far has been apps. In early reviews, Slack’s Android app only showed one channel or conversation at a time, Evernote’s app was not offered in the Googlebook Play Store at all, and some reviewers ended up using the websites instead. One tester found the Chrome browser itself felt like the full desktop version, which is why web apps are such a useful fallback.

So for everyday owners, Chrome 155 is a practical upgrade. If a service’s Android app feels like a stretched phone screen, you can install its website instead and get a windowed app that sits in your taskbar, remembers your login and avoids a pile of tabs. It does not fix apps that are missing entirely, but it gives you a cleaner way around the problem.

A good first test is a tool you open every day, such as your email, calendar or a chat service you use in the browser. Install it, pin it next to your other apps, and use it for a few days. If it feels better than juggling tabs, repeat the trick for the rest of your daily sites.

Google is still building out the platform. At its Android Dev Summit in late October, the company said detachables, laptops whose keyboard comes off to leave a tablet, will be the next type of Googlebook after the current clamshells and convertibles. Lenovo is expected to make the first one, based on a leak from the summer.

Business and school features are further off. Tools that Chromebooks already have, such as IT admin controls and multiple user profiles in Chrome, are due to start arriving on Googlebooks in the second half of 2027, and Google has promised to keep supporting ChromeOS through 2034 in the meantime.