Google"s announced a new application called Google Essentials, headed to Windows PCs, that will bundle its suite of apps and services. The software provides users with a single place to discover and install core Google services directly from the Start menu.
Google Essentials lets users easily install some of the more popular apps, including Google Play Games, Photos, and Messages. The former can actually let users play thousands of mobile and PC titles in the Google Play Store, where progress is saved across devices. Photos and Messages make it easier than ever to view photo albums or reply to texts from any computer.
For example, from Google Essentials or HP’s OMEN Gaming Hub, you’ll be able to access thousands of mobile and native PC games from Google Play Games, such as Clash of Clans and CookieRun: Tower of Adventures. Signing in to your Play Games account allows you to sync your in-game progress and reward benefits for certain titles, so you can pick things back up whether you’re on an Android device or PC.
It also offers you productivity tools like Google Drive, Docs, and Calendar with shortcuts for quick file access, editing, and sharing, or coordination of schedules without moving between browsers. Other perks include eligible Google One subscribers gaining a two-month trial of 100GB of cloud storage.
Google Essentials will come pre-installed on every new HP consumer and gaming laptop range, including Spectre, Envy, Pavilion, OMEN, and Victus. The company also stated it plans to expand the app to more devices from other OEMs in the coming months.
Finally, Google noted that users would have full control over their experience and could uninstall any Google service - or Google Essentials altogether - at any time.