The Chromebook platform has always offered a different way to work on the move. It is built around cloud computing and being always connected, yet over the years it has increased the options and usability when you go offline. Support for third-party software using Android and Linux has been added. Software and security updates reach out to ten years.
And with Google’s push into AI with Gemini, the Chromebook is doing its part to bring the user closer to AI with the new Quick Insert key. But is there more to this new button on the keyboard?
What Does The Chromebook Quick Insert Key Do?
Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus launched late in 2024, was one of the first Chromebooks to feature the key with its plus sign inside a diamond. It sits where many would expect the Caps Lock key to be, so it’s relatively quick to activate (especially for those who touch type). It’s also available by a shortcut on other Chromebook models as software updates roll out.
Caps Lock isn’t lost, though; it’s just a Fn-Quick Insert hotkey combination away.
Hitting the Quick Insert key brings up a dialog box, much like a right mouse click. The various options are stacked in the box, with some out of sight and needing a scroll down to find them.
Find The Right Emoji
Sitting along the top is an emoji bar. Your most used emojis are available for selection. Alongside this, you have a button to search for GIFs, which makes it useful for picking your social media reactions. It’s far easier than hunting online in a regular browser window to download or copy and paste. You then have a pop-up for the full range of emoji. There’s nothing surprising or out of the ordinary here, it’s a quick way to get your quick hit graphical emotions into your text.
You are reliant on the GIF search, though this is relatively comprehensive, and you’re not going to have any file format issues that mean you use the wrong format and the GIF won’t be shown.
If you want to move away from the popular memes and use your own, if you have them as a folder in your Google Drive or stored locally, you can use the Content Search field to type in the filename to search the drives for them.
Where Have You Visited?
Next up is the address bar, listing recently visited web pages to allow for easier copying into an article, email, or such.
This is all relatively straightforward. The dialog box will highlight the last visited tab, making the best guess that this link will be needed. If not, you can scroll down to pick your browsing history and have all your recent links listed.
Unlocking Gemini AI On Your Chromebook
The big one that I suspect Google has built the facility around is “Create With Google AI.” Using a Gemini chatbox and Google’s generative AI creation tools, you can help shape your words from whole cloth with a few phrases or ask for help in your current task (such as, “How do I lay out a blog post?”).
How much you use this will depend on attitudes towards generative AI. Many projects and professions will have strict rules on where AI can be used. Others will have a more lax policy.
There are also your personal feelings about AI. Using it to start some sparks for a project or help with tasks that help shape a project is a long way from asking AI to write your daily workload, but they all funnel through the Gemini dialog box.
If AI is the future that the tech companies proclaim it to be, it will be a powerful prompt box that will change personal creativity. It could also be seen as a prompt that radically changes many jobs and roles in the creative industry and not for the better.
Google is leaning into the former. Where you lean will decide how much you’ll use this prompt.
Text From The Rest Of The Chromebook
You then have a more prosaic content option that allows you to search through content such as your browsing history, clipboard, Google Drive files, and files on the Chromebook itself to insert them. Essentially, this is the non-AI additive part. Notes drafted in a Google Doc? Find the file and add the content here. You also have the option to search locally and through the Chromebook’s filing system.
Depending on how you collect notes and snippets of text, there could be a lot of utility here.
A Few Chromebook Utilities To Finish With
Finally, you have some quick access tools to get the date (in various formats) and a prompt-based calculator. This is fast and easy, although typing in a full line of calculation, rather than through an older calculator-styled interface, is very much a modern-day choice.
How Does Chromebook Deal With Quick Insert Oddities?
Google wants the focus to stay on the “insert” part of the name and not the “quick” part of the name, which I believe has deliberately limited the options available.
I find myself looking for an app launcher in the Quick Insert box. It seems such an obvious addition that would help my workflow. I’d also like to see future updates allow third-party plugins to appear. These would all help my workflow, yet I can see how it stands apart from the goal of assisting users to add things to what they are working on.
For long-term Chromebook users, the Quick Insert key now sits where the Launcher key used to sit. The Launcher key is used as a modifier for many hot-key actions. For those with strong muscle-memory, consider remapping the Quick Insert key and the Launcher key in settings so you can carry on regardless.
Some Final Thoughts On This Chromebook Addition
Google’s Quick Insert button reminds me of another button added to the laptop form factor… Microsoft’s Copilot button. The latter offers AI features based around a chatbot-styled interface, as well as generative AI tools for text and image creation, including Cocreator for generating graphics,
Google has balanced its need to push Gemini AI into the Chromebook UI. Many of the features do not rely on generative AI, and those that do are tucked away in the prompt box, so if you want to avoid using AI in these situations it is easily done.
The Quick Insert button is very much a disciplined button. It would be easy to overload the interface with toys and options, such as the aforementioned lament for an App Launcher, yet Google has held back. Quick Insert is all about supporting you as you create your own documents and lets you select how much you are comfortable leaving to automation.
Is it vital to the Chromebook experience? No, but it is a handy addition for those who work across multiple documents and sources as they work. For a piece of connective technology, it does a good job.
Disclaimer: Google provided a Samsung Chromebook Plus for evaluation purposes.
