Chromebooks are an exciting new platform that continue to take the education sector by storm! While traditional computer systems have focused on devices, Google takes a user-centric, device-agnostic approach. The Chromebook philosophy is that you should always have seamless access to your apps, settings, and files, regardless of the device you sign into.
We’ve designed our Chromebook Apps along the same principles of flexibility and portability. This extends to how they are purchased, licensed and distributed.
Purchasing
The apps themselves are free downloads! This gives you the opportunity to trial them for 28 days, to see how they work and how they can benefit your pupils.
To start a trial, simply launch the app and complete a short form. If your organisation has a Google Domain, the trial will apply to everyone, so it only needs to be done once!
If you decide to continue using the apps, you can purchase a subscription that covers a specific number of users, or your entire Google Domain. To learn more, see:
Licensing
The apps automatically identify the user by their Google account address (after asking for permission on first use).
This provides many benefits:
- No need to sign in.
- No need to create / maintain accounts.
- No serial number to remember.
- The only information stored by us is the Google address and display name.
If your subscription covers a specific number of users rather than your entire Google Domain, staff can easily add / remove users at any time:
How do I manage the users on my subscription?
Distribution
Pupils can install the apps themselves by searching the Chrome Web Store and clicking Add to Chrome.
Having done this, the apps (and their settings) will download automatically on any Chromebook they sign into.
Alternatively, your Google Admin can deploy apps to users using the standard Admin Console:
