As the internet becomes a bigger part of our daily lives, moving our data and computing power to the cloud is common. Few products take advantage of this like a top-of-the-line Chromebook. Few services showcase the potential of cloud computing like cloud gaming platforms such as Amazon Luna, GeForce Now, and Xbox Game Pass, which let you stream games that are otherwise unplayable on your device.
You can take advantage of these services on any Chromebook, and you can search and launch from the libraries of Amazon Luna, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Xbox Cloud Gaming from your Chromebook’s Launcher search bar from certain devices. Here’s how to do it.
How to install cloud gaming PWAs on your Chromebook
Are you ready to integrate the top cloud gaming services into your Chromebook Launcher? Install the progressive web app for the service from which you want to search and launch games.
- Navigate to your streaming service in your Chrome browser.
- Click the Install icon on the right side of the Chrome address bar.
- When asked if you want to install the app, click Install.
That’s it! You can now search streaming game libraries and launch the latest games from your Chromebook Launcher. There’s just one catch. This cloud-launching capability is exclusive to gaming Chromebooks (Acer 516 GE, ASUS Vibe CX55 Flip, and Lenovo Ideapad Gaming). Although most of us can’t take advantage of this, the feature could be pushed out to the larger Chromebook ecosystem.
Go play games
Chromebook gaming seems to be in a golden age. Although the hardware isn’t optimized for playing modern high-end games locally, Chromebooks were practically born in the cloud and are positioned to take advantage of the current boom in cloud gaming. Google is making it as easy as possible to game on its devices.
If you want to give cloud gaming a shot on your Chromebook, there are several ways to dip your toes in the water without making a monthly commitment. Amazon Luna offers a seven-day trial for new users. If you want more time, Google offers free subscriptions to Boosteroid (one month) and GeForce Now (three months) to Chromebook owners for a limited time (as well as a bunch of other perks).
If you want to put your hardware to the test, download Steam (pending your specs) and play games from your Chromebook. You may not have much luck getting Cyberpunk 2077 to launch, but there are a lot of games on Steam that aren’t as demanding, which will run just fine.
It’s all in the controller
Even if searching for and launching cloud games from the Launcher is another one of Google’s famous larks, it’s good to see it’s taking steps to make ChromeOS stand out from its competitors. While you wait for this to be pushed to the rest of us, break out your joystick and enjoy top-tier gaming with someone else’s horsepower.
