Chromebooks Can Finally Play Movies and Shows Offline

When Google launched Chrome OS, it touted it as a nearly entirely cloud-centric operating system. In fact, it wasn't designed to store data or applications locally at all, or do anything local, really.

Since then, Google has wisely hedged that bet, and it is doing so in a big way as it finally gives Chromebook users a way to watch Google Play Movies and TV offline.  Google announced offline viewing last month and new Chromebooks are indeed pulling the feat off via a new app for Chrome OS.

 According to a post from Google:

"The new Google Play Movies & TV Chrome app makes your favorite movies and TV shows on your Chromebook available any time, anywhere - even without a WiFI connection. http://goo.gl/L8VUzf

"In addition to offline mode on Chrome OS, it also brings Info Cards and an improved Chromecast and local playback experience to anyone watching movies through the Chrome browser."

 This is just the latest in a series of moves Google has made to be a little less two-fisted about keeping Chrome OS totally cloud-centric. The company has added automatic offline Drive document syncing in Chrome and Google Keep for online or offline notetaking. Many Chrome apps work online or offline, including games, video editors, and more. And, Google has provided Gmail and Google Calendar offline features for several years.

The fact is, people want both online and offline smarts in a modern day operating system, and it's good to see Google realizing that the cloud isn't the only language that its OS needs to speak.