Google Is Testing Android's Best Productivity Feature For Chrome

With the introduction of Android 12, Google enabled support for quickly sharing links and images using a simple drag and drop gesture via the recent menu. But so far, the Chrome browser on Android has lacked support for cross-app image transfer. Thankfully, that is about to change, as Chrome on mobile has been spotted testing the feature. One lucky user running the most recent beta version of Chrome on Android has shared a video on Twitter that shows an image being dragged from a Chrome tab and into a Google Keep window.

The feature works in the same way as dragging and dropping apps in split view mode. When an image is double tapped, the context menu window now appears on the left side of the screen instead of the center, while a preview of the selected image appears on the right, ready to be moved into another app's window. However, it appears the feature hasn't been enabled widely for all users. We tried to replicate it on a Pixel 4a running an up-to-date beta build of Chrome and the latest Developer Preview of Android 13, but couldn't execute the drag and drop gesture for moving images to another app.

It appears Google is enabling the feature in a phased manner, which means it will likely reach all beta testers in a staggered fashion over the coming weeks. The latest Chrome beta for Android and iOS carries the build number v100.0.4896.46 and is now available to download via the Play Store and App Store, respectively. Google hasn't shared a changelog of all the features that arrive with Chrome's most recent beta update, and only mentions general stability and performance improvements on its Play Store listing under the "What's New" section. However, the official git log spills the beans on Chrome's newfound ability.

That log, which was published on March 16, mentions a feature called DragDrop. The language is quite technical, but the gist is that Chrome's latest build will allow users to drag images from the browser and drop them into other apps. The feature's status says "Merge to M100," which means it has passed the testing phase and has been integrated into the main development pipeline ahead of its wider release. In simple words, Chrome's drag and drop feature for images will be available to users when v100 of the browser is released via the stable channel in the coming weeks.