Chrome OS to soon allow users to unlock their devices using Android phones

As we slowly but surely find ourselves surrounded by the Google ecosystem, the IT giant is making sure it loses no inhabitant. And we're not complaining; It only gets better for us, the users.

An API -- chrome.screenlockPrivate -- found in a recent build of the Chromium OS pretty much gives away a feature that would allow Chrome OS users to lock and unlock their devices using an Android phone. In a bid to possibly keep the feature under wraps, all the description of the API states is 'The chrome.screenlockPrivate API allows select apps to control the ChromeOS ScreenLocker'. Call it convenience, but we'd like to believe that it is indeed what we think it is.

As contact and wearable technology gets more and more popular, it leads us to imagine that this feature would let users unlock their Chromebooks using anything from NFC-enabled smartphones (NFC rings maybe?), smartwatches to maybe even Bluetooth devices, which, thanks to the LE protocol, can stay connected for long hours without causing a lot of battery drain.

Would you prefer such 'contact' based security or are passwords and patterns your thing?

[Via]