Screensavers don’t serve many purposes other than looking cool and hiding your screen. However, if you have a Chromebook, you can enable a screen saver with personal photos and information. Any Chrome OS device can look like a smart display.
The Chrome OS screen saver resembles a Chromecast or Smart Display background. It shows the time, weather and music being played. The background images can be retrieved from your Google Photos account or a curated art gallery. While it does look like a smart display, it does not have Google Assistant functions.
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Note: To use the screen saver feature, your device requires Chrome OS 88 or later.
First select the clock on the shelf to open the Quick Settings panel. Click the gear icon to open the Settings menu.
In the settings, select “Personalization” in the left sidebar.
Click on “Screen Saver” under the “Personalization” section.
Turn on the switch “On”.
Now we have a few personalization options to work with. In the ‘Background’ section, you can choose between ‘Google Photos’ or ‘Art Gallery’.
Each gives you a few different albums to choose from. If you choose ‘Google Photos’, you can choose from your personal albums.
Once you’ve made your background selections, go to the ‘Weather’ section and choose ‘Fahrenheit’ or ‘Celsius’.
That’s all there is to it. The screen saver starts automatically when the device becomes idle, which takes approximately six minutes on battery power or eight minutes when plugged in.
If you want the screen to stay on so you can enjoy the screen saver longer, open the Settings menu and go to Device> Power. Here you can choose to “Keep Display On” when not in use while charging or on battery.
Now you have a Smart Display-like screen saver with some useful information and personalized background images. This should make your Chromebook look a bit nicer when you’re not using it.
