[ButlerianJihad]

There is a weird dichotomy developing between tasks that can be done on a particular device. If a given app or property is "cross-platform" then I can install the Android version, and the PWA version or visit a website and access it on Chromebook. But they do not have feature parity.

Now in the past, it was because the "desktop version" was more featureful/powerful due to the constrained resources of the mobile platform. This still holds true; even though mobile computing resources aren't constrained, the UI and display can be, somewhat.

But also the mobile app may exhibit some features unavailable on "desktop"! Because of the nature of the sensors and secure platform, you can have sophisticated features available on your smartphone that aren't possible to replicate on any other platform. Nearly every built-in Google app is like this and if you read the documentation, you can easily see the differences.

And of course there's the mobile-only apps that malfunction or refuse to install on Chromebook, like a ride share or something that's actually designed to be used "out and about" in meatspace.

So there are many times when I am lying in bed, for example, phone in hand, and I attempt some task and realize that the features I want are only available on "desktop" version, and then I got to make a mental note to address that when I'm on "desktop". Or vice versa, I'm puttering away on the Chromebook and it balks at something I'll need to use my phone for. Or the worst-case scenario is when I need to have 2-3 devices all directly at hand to do some dumb thing like printing out a page! AUGH!