Google started pushing ChromeOS 150 to most eligible Chromebooks on July 21, 2026, and it’s a bigger release than the version number suggests. Most milestone updates are quiet maintenance work under the hood, but this one reshapes how schools manage devices and gives IT admins a new way to lock down logins.
Gemini takes over classroom management
The headline feature is Gemini in Class Tools. Teachers running managed Chromebooks can now restrict student devices to Gemini’s Guided Learning mode during class time, cutting off anything outside the current assignment. The same controls extend to Gemini Notebook (the app formerly called NotebookLM), letting teachers lock a class into research mode for a specific project, or restrict test-taking sessions so students can’t wander off to Google Search or another tab.
It’s a natural next step for a platform that has spent over a decade establishing itself in US classrooms, and it puts Google’s AI push directly into the hands of teachers rather than just students. Whether districts actually turn these controls on will depend on IT policy, but the option is live starting now.
New login controls, and a kiosk mode deadline
On the security side, ChromeOS 150 introduces two enterprise policies that let admins enable local PIN and password sign-in on managed devices, with configurable complexity requirements (low, medium, or high). A small number of Enterprise and Education accounts that set up a local PIN in late June will get automatically switched back to standard online password sign-in when they update, with a one-time notice explaining why. No files or profile data are affected.
Separately, this release starts the clock on a bigger change: legacy Chrome Apps running in Kiosk mode will stop working entirely once ChromeOS 151 ships. If your school or business still runs a kiosk sign, ticketing terminal, or point-of-sale screen on an old-style Chrome App, now is the time to migrate it to a progressive web app. Chrome Apps in managed guest sessions and normal user accounts aren’t affected yet.
ChromeOS 150 also lets users manually install Isolated Web Apps where admins allow it, and Google says it tightened up how login tokens get checked, which should mean fewer of those annoying “please sign in again” prompts.
What Chromebook owners should do
If you’re on a personal Chromebook, there’s nothing urgent here. The update rolls out automatically, and you can check whether it’s landed yet under Settings, About ChromeOS, or by switching channels as explained in our guide to ChromeOS update channels. If you manage a fleet of devices for a school or business, especially anything running Kiosk Mode or Managed Guest Sessions, start auditing which apps are still built as legacy Chrome Apps before ChromeOS 151 arrives. And if you’re the type who tracks every release, this one follows fairly close behind ChromeOS 149’s stable rollout from earlier this month, part of Google’s steady march toward faster, more frequent releases.
Google has also flagged what’s coming next: a new inverted-color cursor option for accessibility, and starting with ChromeOS 151, an end to updates for non-certified Flex devices running old Intel, AMD, or Nvidia graphics hardware. That second one is worth watching if you’re running ChromeOS Flex on genuinely old hardware, since it could mean your update ride is nearing its final stop.
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