Google Cloud Print is a service that lets you connect an internet-enabled printer to your Google account and then send print jobs to it from a phone, Chromebook, or just about anything else with web access.
First introduced a decade ago as a solution for sending print jobs from Chromebooks to a printer, Google Cloud Print eventually came to Android phones a few years later.
And now it’s going away.
Google has announced that it will no longer support Google Cloud Print after December 31st, 2020.
To be fair, Google also points out that despite being nearly 10 years old, Cloud Print has never exited beta. So you could make a case that the company never really considered it a fully polished service. Then again, Google’s massively popular Gmail service was also in beta from 2004 through 2009, even though millions of people relied on it every day long before it exited beta.
Still, is it any wonder some folks have already started counting down the days until Google pulls the plug on Stadia, it’s most recently launched shiny new thing?
Anyway, Google is giving users more than a year to find an alternative to Cloud Print. The company notes that Chrome OS now has an improved native printing experience, and Android also does a pretty good job of detecting printers on your network these days using the “Default Print Service.”
via @killedbygoogle and 9to5Google
Good riddance.
I’m sure there’s millions of us using the Cloud Print to print to GDrive for archival purposes and/or as a way to do remote printing (ie remote access, print where your thin client is) with Chrome Remote Desktop. So this will be a sorely missed service if they get rid of the ability to print to PDF on GDrive.
Ah, I remember when Google abused the word “beta” (I guess they still do) by slapping it on their products so they can hide behind it when something goes wrong.
I use printhand premium to print directly from my phone (using a USB -USB-C adapter). I tried the hp utility but it didn’t work. Anyway, being able to print directly is great.
Anyways. My point is that there are solutions available, and newer printers usually are even easier with apps or direct printing via Wi-Fi etc.
Chromebook printing is still hit or miss, and if you have a printer not well supported by linux changes are you rely on cloud print.