We see many Chrome apps come and go, but very few come from popular Googler François Beaufort. Beaufort is one of our best Chrome educators, but he can also pop out simple, yet functional apps like no other – Webview Screensaver is pure testament of this.
Beaufort’s apps are usually made with testing in mind. Most of his apps are made to showcase how new Chrome technologies work. But they are also very neat and can be used to improve your Chrome experience.
What is Webview Screensaver?
Webview is a pretty straight forward Chrome app. It takes images from the Chromecast screensaver and displays them on your Chromebook or computer when it’s inactive for a minute.
What else does it do?
That’s pretty much it! The app doesn’t have options or other features. It just puts an image in your display if the computer is unused for a minute.
These images are taken from the Chromecast screensaver, but don’t switch like we see in the Chromecast. It’s the same image until next time the screensaver is activated.
You may be wondering why this app does so little, yet it’s important enough to become the “app of the day”. Well, like I mentioned above – Beaufort usually makes Chrome apps and extensions to showcase Chrome features, more so than creating an app for the masses.
Webview Screensaver shows how the Webview and Chrome.idle APIs are used to create a fun feature in a Chrome app. He is hoping other developers take advantage of this demo and apply this technique to their own apps.
Developers can actually take a look at Beaufort’s source code, so go ahead and download it from the links below if interested! You can also check out Webview Screensaver if you want to know what it’s all about.
