Over time, we’ve continued to create new and better ways to use Chrome devices. What started out as a secure, quick and shareable consumer laptop built on the Chrome browser has expanded to digital signage, now used in thousands of Toyota showrooms, small computing sticks called Chromebits, and kiosk devices that securely provide single use apps for both business employees and customers.

We’re continuing to invest in Chrome through recently launched hardware, more Chrome device management controls and the introduction of Android Kiosk apps on devices that support them. Many kiosk devices already rely on Android applications, so the addition of Android kiosk apps on Chrome is a natural expansion. It also broadens the possibilities for digital signs and kiosks on Chrome devices, providing the option of either a web or Android app approach.

Chrome version 57, coming soon, adds this support for Android kiosk apps as well as for kiosk application management. An app in Google Play can be pushed to a Chrome device and then be locked down so that the application is front and center.

That means an IT admin has the flexibility to install either Chrome Kiosk apps or Android Kiosk apps on managed devices through the Chrome Management console, which decreases deployment time and effort. Additionally, with Public Session Kiosks, an IT admin has the ability to install many more Chrome packaged apps and extensions in addition to hosted apps.

We’re also making it easier to manage Chrome devices with two additional developments.

First, we’re making it simple for you to sign up for a Chrome kiosk, doing away with complex domain registration and verification steps. Your name, email address and phone number is all you need to sign up and manage your devices. With this feature, we also provide two trial licenses so that you can get started immediately. Click here to learn more.

Second, we’re launching new Chrome Device Management (CDM) APIs for Kiosks. These APIs offer programmatic access to various Kiosk policies. IT admins can schedule a device reboot through the new APIs, for example, and integrate that functionality directly in a third party console. Additionally, we added a new stability API that allows Kiosk app developers to improve the reliability of the application and the system.

Many Chrome devices can take full advantage of these new features including the recently launched AOPEN Chromebox Mini and Chromebase Mini.

Chromebase Mini is a full computing device with 10.1-inch touchscreen, which is ideal for customer-facing applications, even those that are Android-based. Australia-based Nightlife Music, for example, installs its crowdDJ Android app on these kiosk devices at dance clubs, gyms, hotels and other venues, letting customers control the beat. When paired with a display, the AOPEN Chromebox Mini also creates a compelling digital sign with Chrome and Android kiosk apps.

To learn more about the many new Chrome 57 features and see the AOPEN devices that can help build your business, come visit our booth at Next 2017 this week or visit this page for additional information.

Editor’s note: Today we hear from Chet Patel, director of Information Technology at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. Read how the resort uses Chrome digital signage to inform guests about events and staff about important news.

We’re a big resort, with more than 2,200 guest rooms and facilities spread out over 87 acres of lakefront property in the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fl, which makes communications challenging. To solve the problem we chose NoviSign’s Chrome-based digital signage solution because it’s cost-effective, scalable and secure. 

We can easily customize it as our needs change. Because Chrome signage is simple to deploy, it had a minimal impact on our existing IT infrastructure. NoviSign made deployment easy by helping with training and hosting the platform.

Chrome digital signage helps our staff and guests get useful information throughout the day. At the front desk, our employees show incoming guests videos of rooms they might want to choose. And we use the signs to tell guests about activities at the resort and news such as the weather so they can grab a poncho if there’s a thunderstorm heading our way.

In our employee-dedicated areas, the human resources department alerts staff to important news, such as when it’s time to enroll in our health plan, and the security department plays safety-related videos.

Chrome digital signage is so easy to manage that IT staff doesn’t need to get involved with programming. Each department handles content on their own from the central console, which means our team can focus on IT-related work, such as resolving key encoding problems or point-of-sale workstation issues. We’ve also saved considerably on the devices. It costs less than $200 in set-up, configuration and licensing fees for a Chromebit to power a digital sign, compared to up to $600 for a PC. Maintenance is minimal because we don’t have to apply security patches or worry about continual updates; Chrome devices are automatically updated.

So far we’ve deployed a dozen Chromebits and two Chromeboxes, and we’re planning to use more in the coming months. It’s keeping with the way we’ve always operated at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort, by using the newest technologies for the most time-honored purposes: entertaining people and making sure they have the best vacations possible.

Editor’s note: Today we hear from Chet Patel, director of Information Technology at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. Read how the resort uses Chrome digital signage to inform guests about events and staff about important news.

We’re a big resort, with more than 2,200 guest rooms and facilities spread out over 87 acres of lakefront property in the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fl, which makes communications challenging. To solve the problem we chose NoviSign’s Chrome-based digital signage solution because it’s cost-effective, scalable and secure. 

We can easily customize it as our needs change. Because Chrome signage is simple to deploy, it had a minimal impact on our existing IT infrastructure. NoviSign made deployment easy by helping with training and hosting the platform.

Chrome digital signage helps our staff and guests get useful information throughout the day. At the front desk, our employees show incoming guests videos of rooms they might want to choose. And we use the signs to tell guests about activities at the resort and news such as the weather so they can grab a poncho if there’s a thunderstorm heading our way.

In our employee-dedicated areas, the human resources department alerts staff to important news, such as when it’s time to enroll in our health plan, and the security department plays safety-related videos.

Chrome digital signage is so easy to manage that IT staff doesn’t need to get involved with programming. Each department handles content on their own from the central console, which means our team can focus on IT-related work, such as resolving key encoding problems or point-of-sale workstation issues. We’ve also saved considerably on the devices. It costs less than $200 in set-up, configuration and licensing fees for a Chromebit to power a digital sign, compared to up to $600 for a PC. Maintenance is minimal because we don’t have to apply security patches or worry about continual updates; Chrome devices are automatically updated.

So far we’ve deployed a dozen Chromebits and two Chromeboxes, and we’re planning to use more in the coming months. It’s keeping with the way we’ve always operated at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort, by using the newest technologies for the most time-honored purposes: entertaining people and making sure they have the best vacations possible.

Editor’s note: Today we hear from Chet Patel, director of Information Technology at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. Read how the resort uses Chrome digital signage to inform guests about events and staff about important news.

We’re a big resort, with more than 2,200 guest rooms and facilities spread out over 87 acres of lakefront property in the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fl, which makes communications challenging. To solve the problem we chose NoviSign’s Chrome-based digital signage solution because it’s cost-effective, scalable and secure. 

We can easily customize it as our needs change. Because Chrome signage is simple to deploy, it had a minimal impact on our existing IT infrastructure. NoviSign made deployment easy by helping with training and hosting the platform.

Chrome digital signage helps our staff and guests get useful information throughout the day. At the front desk, our employees show incoming guests videos of rooms they might want to choose. And we use the signs to tell guests about activities at the resort and news such as the weather so they can grab a poncho if there’s a thunderstorm heading our way.

In our employee-dedicated areas, the human resources department alerts staff to important news, such as when it’s time to enroll in our health plan, and the security department plays safety-related videos.

Chrome digital signage is so easy to manage that IT staff doesn’t need to get involved with programming. Each department handles content on their own from the central console, which means our team can focus on IT-related work, such as resolving key encoding problems or point-of-sale workstation issues. We’ve also saved considerably on the devices. It costs less than $200 in set-up, configuration and licensing fees for a Chromebit to power a digital sign, compared to up to $600 for a PC. Maintenance is minimal because we don’t have to apply security patches or worry about continual updates; Chrome devices are automatically updated.

So far we’ve deployed a dozen Chromebits and two Chromeboxes, and we’re planning to use more in the coming months. It’s keeping with the way we’ve always operated at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort, by using the newest technologies for the most time-honored purposes: entertaining people and making sure they have the best vacations possible.

Editor’s note: Today we hear from John W. Penney, creative director and CEO of Miami-based BlackDog Advertising. Read how the company used Chrome devices to build engaging signage for Evelyn Hill, a vendor on New York City’s Liberty Island.

The Statue of Liberty towers 300 feet above Liberty Island, where visitors can admire its grandeur and explore the history leading to its construction. While most people know some of the statue’s history, few know Evelyn Hill, the family-owned business that has been selling food, refreshments and souvenirs beneath the Statue of Liberty for three generations. We took on the challenge of transforming Evelyn Hill’s gift shop and restaurant, the Crown Cafe, into a visitor destination, and driving traffic to thestatueofliberty.com.

Evelyn Hill wanted to replicate a photo contest my company, Blackdog Advertising, had created for Dry Tortugas, a remote national park off the Florida coast. This time, we’d be creating a live photo feed so visitors could see images as they were uploaded. My company had a great experience using Chrome devices before, so we decided to use Chrome digital signage devices because they are easy to deploy, cost effective and make content management a breeze.

The photo contest has driven incredible engagement — both in person and online. Over 21,700 photo votes have been cast so far, and thestatueofliberty.com saw a 270 percent traffic spike as a result. Evelyn Hill is considering ways to expand the photo contest to other locations on the island because of the success we’ve seen so far.

To drive high engagement, we created live-updating digital signs to draw visitors into the Crown Cafe and engage them in the photo contest. Monitors are powered by Google Chromebits that are remotely operated using Chrome Device Management, so the cafe can easily display contest results. Meanwhile, visitors can use the #PictureLiberty hashtag to share their photos on the Statue of Liberty website and encourage their friends to vote for their submission.

The flexibility of Chrome lets us optimize signage solutions. With Chrome Device Management we were able to easily install WooBox, which collected contest photos from social media, on all of our managed devices (in this case, Chromebits). We don’t want to deliver cookie-cutter solutions to our customers, and Chrome enables us to build solutions that stand out from the crowd.

Using Chrome also helped keep the campaign cost effective. Since Chrome Sign Builder is free to use and the photo content is user-generated, hardware was the only cost. Each of Liberty Island’s four units cost just $109, including access to Chrome Device Management, which allowed us to easily install apps on the Chromebits. Achieving this low cost would have been impossible with any other digital signage solution.

Visitors remember their time on Liberty Island for the rest of their lives, and Evelyn Hill is part of that experience. Chrome helps make that experience better. The #PictureLiberty contest and others like it will ensure the Crown Cafe remains a visitor destination for decades to come.

Editor’s note: Today we hear from John W. Penney, creative director and CEO of Miami-based BlackDog Advertising. Read how the company used Chrome devices to build engaging signage for Evelyn Hill, a vendor on New York City’s Liberty Island.

The Statue of Liberty towers 300 feet above Liberty Island, where visitors can admire its grandeur and explore the history leading to its construction. While most people know some of the statue’s history, few know Evelyn Hill, the family-owned business that has been selling food, refreshments and souvenirs beneath the Statue of Liberty for three generations. We took on the challenge of transforming Evelyn Hill’s gift shop and restaurant, the Crown Cafe, into a visitor destination, and driving traffic to thestatueofliberty.com.

Evelyn Hill wanted to replicate a photo contest my company, Blackdog Advertising, had created for Dry Tortugas, a remote national park off the Florida coast. This time, we’d be creating a live photo feed so visitors could see images as they were uploaded. My company had a great experience using Chrome devices before, so we decided to use Chrome digital signage devices because they are easy to deploy, cost effective and make content management a breeze.

The photo contest has driven incredible engagement — both in person and online. Over 21,700 photo votes have been cast so far, and thestatueofliberty.com saw a 270 percent traffic spike as a result. Evelyn Hill is considering ways to expand the photo contest to other locations on the island because of the success we’ve seen so far.

To drive high engagement, we created live-updating digital signs to draw visitors into the Crown Cafe and engage them in the photo contest. Monitors are powered by Google Chromebits that are remotely operated using Chrome Device Management, so the cafe can easily display contest results. Meanwhile, visitors can use the #PictureLiberty hashtag to share their photos on the Statue of Liberty website and encourage their friends to vote for their submission.

The flexibility of Chrome lets us optimize signage solutions. With Chrome Device Management we were able to easily install WooBox, which collected contest photos from social media, on all of our managed devices (in this case, Chromebits). We don’t want to deliver cookie-cutter solutions to our customers, and Chrome enables us to build solutions that stand out from the crowd.

Using Chrome also helped keep the campaign cost effective. Since Chrome Sign Builder is free to use and the photo content is user-generated, hardware was the only cost. Each of Liberty Island’s four units cost just $109, including access to Chrome Device Management, which allowed us to easily install apps on the Chromebits. Achieving this low cost would have been impossible with any other digital signage solution.

Visitors remember their time on Liberty Island for the rest of their lives, and Evelyn Hill is part of that experience. Chrome helps make that experience better. The #PictureLiberty contest and others like it will ensure the Crown Cafe remains a visitor destination for decades to come.

Editor’s note: Today we hear from John W. Penney, creative director and CEO of Miami-based BlackDog Advertising. Read how the company used Chrome devices to build engaging signage for Evelyn Hill, a vendor on New York City’s Liberty Island.

The Statue of Liberty towers 300 feet above Liberty Island, where visitors can admire its grandeur and explore the history leading to its construction. While most people know some of the statue’s history, few know Evelyn Hill, the family-owned business that has been selling food, refreshments and souvenirs beneath the Statue of Liberty for three generations. We took on the challenge of transforming Evelyn Hill’s gift shop and restaurant, the Crown Cafe, into a visitor destination, and driving traffic to thestatueofliberty.com.

Evelyn Hill wanted to replicate a photo contest my company, Blackdog Advertising, had created for Dry Tortugas, a remote national park off the Florida coast. This time, we’d be creating a live photo feed so visitors could see images as they were uploaded. My company had a great experience using Chrome devices before, so we decided to use Chrome digital signage devices because they are easy to deploy, cost effective and make content management a breeze.

The photo contest has driven incredible engagement — both in person and online. Over 21,700 photo votes have been cast so far, and thestatueofliberty.com saw a 270 percent traffic spike as a result. Evelyn Hill is considering ways to expand the photo contest to other locations on the island because of the success we’ve seen so far.

To drive high engagement, we created live-updating digital signs to draw visitors into the Crown Cafe and engage them in the photo contest. Monitors are powered by Google Chromebits that are remotely operated using Chrome Device Management, so the cafe can easily display contest results. Meanwhile, visitors can use the #PictureLiberty hashtag to share their photos on the Statue of Liberty website and encourage their friends to vote for their submission.

The flexibility of Chrome lets us optimize signage solutions. With Chrome Device Management we were able to easily install WooBox, which collected contest photos from social media, on all of our managed devices (in this case, Chromebits). We don’t want to deliver cookie-cutter solutions to our customers, and Chrome enables us to build solutions that stand out from the crowd.

Using Chrome also helped keep the campaign cost effective. Since Chrome Sign Builder is free to use and the photo content is user-generated, hardware was the only cost. Each of Liberty Island’s four units cost just $109, including access to Chrome Device Management, which allowed us to easily install apps on the Chromebits. Achieving this low cost would have been impossible with any other digital signage solution.

Visitors remember their time on Liberty Island for the rest of their lives, and Evelyn Hill is part of that experience. Chrome helps make that experience better. The #PictureLiberty contest and others like it will ensure the Crown Cafe remains a visitor destination for decades to come.

Editor’s note: Today we hear from Steven Simons, IT Manager for Customer Retail and Product Systems at Toyota Motor, Europe. Read how the world’s largest automaker used Chrome digital signage to provide its showroom customers an innovative and immersive customer experience.

It’s no secret that the internet has transformed how people buy cars — a Toyota study shows an increasing number of people research online before visiting a retailer. In fact, the study found, most people purchase a car after visiting only one showroom. So at Toyota Motor Europe, we set out to create a more engaging customer experience by extending our customers’ digital travels into the showroom, and connect browsing online with seeing our cars in person.

We first experimented with digital signage in our showrooms in 2014 to display information about our cars in ways that reflected what customers saw online. However, the system we were using was expensive, unstable and difficult to maintain and manage.

So, we turned to Chrome in late 2015 and replaced our existing digital signage with Asus Chromeboxes connected to 42-inch flatscreen TVs. We manage and program all of the devices centrally from Toyota headquarters. Retailers just install the Chromeboxes and TVs, and they’re up and running. That way, retailers can focus on their customers rather than on technology.

The Chrome-based digital signage has become an important sales tool. It displays videos about Toyota vehicles, customized according to the showroom area where the signs are located. So, if a system is installed in a showroom where hybrid cars are popular, the videos highlight hybrids.

Salespeople use the screens to show customers in-depth information about Toyota vehicles. Thanks to Chrome, salespeople can easily answer customers’ technical questions about things like a car’s Bluetooth capabilities, leading to a smoother sales process. The signs also feature a car configurator, which allows customers to explore and personalize their vehicles. Consumers typically come in with plenty of online research in hand, and they can pick right back up with these configurations in store on our digital signage. Across Europe, 100,000 customers a month use the signage.

We’ve deployed Chrome digital signage in 3,000 showrooms so far, and plan to install between 7,000 and 10,000 digital signs in total across 3,600 Toyota retailers in Europe. Google Cloud partner Fourcast worked with us on the deployment with a packaged, end-to-end solution, and ensured the systems were delivered on a tight, five-day timeframe.

The Chrome-based digital signage is more reliable and easier to deploy than the previous solution, reducing time spent on maintenance, management and troubleshooting. It also saves us on hardware and deployment costs.

Chrome-based digital signage has done everything we hoped it would. Its features let us show off what’s great about Toyota cars. It’s popular with sales staff and customers, as evidenced by increased usage since it was deployed. Retailer demand is greater than we estimated, showing that it’s an important sales enabler. Overall, the system is meeting our customers’ needs while reinforcing our reputation as a technically sophisticated company. Thanks to Chrome digital signage, our customers enjoy a more unified online and offline sales experience.