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Earlier today, my colleague Mishaal Rahman shared the exclusive news that Google is experimenting with bringing Chrome OS to Android. Details are still scarce, but we do know that Google demonstrated to its partners the ability to run a dedicated but up-to-date “ferrochrome” build of Chromium OS (the open source version of Chrome OS) on a Pixel 8 connected to an external display via a virtual machine.

We don’t yet know where or how this project will develop, but the fact that it’s being demonstrated by Google on an outdoor display has us giddy: could this be Android’s properly revived desktop mode? And if so, what happens to Samsung DeX?

The prospect of a full Chrome OS instance running on my Android phone or tablet fascinates me. Especially if I can call it up every time I hook up my phone/tablet to an external monitor. I can imagine doing this on my own TV at home or when I travel and stay in hotels or Airbnbs. I also imagine my husband will love the idea and use it often at his workplace. So instead of constantly looking down at his phone and then up at the screen, he’ll just dock the phone and access his personal accounts with a simple input switch.

It’s not just about accessing an external display. It’s about putting the power and capabilities of Chrome OS in the palm of my hand and on the same device that runs Android. Of course, Android is perfect for computing on the go, but Chrome OS is better suited for desktop use. The platform has also become incredibly powerful over the past few years. It’s no longer just a wrapper around your browser, but a capable operating system that offers tons of features not available on Android phones or tablets.

Chrome OS currently has a built-in PDF editor and annotator, a presentation-ready screen capture tool for work and school, a new Screencast app with screen annotation, a Canvas app for drawing, a Cursive app for note-taking, a photo editor, a clipboard etc. More importantly, it runs the full instance of the Chrome browser, not the mobile one, which means sites like WordPress, where I spend half my workday, run properly. Extensions and custom search engines are also supported.

I can do 95% of my “real work” with Chrome OS without missing a beat. I can barely do 20% on Android, even though modern Android phones have all the necessary horsepower, RAM and memory to handle all these workloads. It’s just that the operating system is not built for it, and neither is the mobile version of the Chrome browser.

Chrome OS can unlock my phone’s unused power. Being able to run a full desktop OS from the device I carry around would be a game changer for me and many people like me. But it’s also sure to put a question mark around Samsung DeX and its future.

Despite how good and capable DeX is, it’s still essentially a larger display wrapper around your regular Android apps. It’s not a different operating system, nor does it unlock more features that your Samsung phone doesn’t have. Yes, it’s incredibly convenient and well-loved by everyone who uses it, but it’s a bit like the iPad’s external display situation: things look nicer and better on a bigger screen, but they’re the same the things. Apple doesn’t let you run macOS when you connect your iPad to an external display, and Samsung DeX is in the same space. A better option, but no the best option.

If Chrome OS comes to Android phones, and if Google manages to bring it to its Pixels and convince other brands to integrate it into their own Android skins, it will put DeX and Samsung at a huge disadvantage. Perhaps the millions of Samsung users won’t know or care or feel that DeX is sufficient for their use, but the future still looks a little bleak for DeX. Likewise for Samsung’s SmartThings Find network now that Google’s Find My Device network has launched. Once a default consensus is adopted in the Android ecosystem, any brand-specific implementation is dead in the water soon after, no matter how influential that brand is.

This already happened to Samsung when it first introduced multitasking, quick settings tiles, and many other Android features. Soon after, the Android option would appear, and Samsung’s APIs and all the work third-party developers had done to adopt them would be forgotten.

Fortunately, that future still seems far-fetched. The “ferrochrome” build of Chrome OS for Android is still far from ready for the public, and we all know how slow Google is to roll out big changes. So raise a glass to DeX and let it continue to be a beacon for Android desktop modes for months to come; then when it’s time to move on to something more powerful, we’ll give it a nice shout out.