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Chrome 88 was only released last week, marking the release of the Manifest V3 extension API, changes to password management, and the official death of Adobe Flash support. Chrome 89 has now arrived in the beta channel and appears to be an even bigger release, although many of its changes are hidden from most people. Let’s dive in!
Privacy sandbox
Google first announced Privacy Sandbox in 2019, as the company’s planned replacement for third-party browser cookies. It’s still a work in progress, but Google is aiming for it to be “a secure environment for personalization that also protects user privacy.” Chrome 89 has the first elements of the personalization interface, currently hidden behind a new flag: # privacy-sandbox-settings.
When the flag is enabled, a new page for Privacy Sandbox can be found in Settings> Privacy and security> Privacy sandbox. There is currently only one toggle, which can “measure web crowd and ads”. Google explained how this works in a recent blog post:
Federated Cohort Learning (FLoC) [Privacy Sandbox] offers a new way for businesses to reach people with relevant content and ads by bringing together large groups of people with similar interests. This approach effectively hides individuals “in the crowd” and uses on-device processing to keep an individual’s web history private on the browser.
By creating simulations based on the principles defined in Chrome’s FLoC proposal, Google’s advertising teams tested this privacy alternative to third-party cookies. The results indicate that when it comes to generating interest-based audiences, FLoC can provide an effective surrogate signal for third-party cookies.
Google doesn’t yet allow sites to use Privacy Sandbox, but now we know where you can manage its settings after the feature is complete.
Discover the flow
Chrome 89 made some changes to the Discover feed on the New Tab page. Currently, articles in the Discover section are listed in cards, but in Chrome 89 they are only separated by separators. The title font also appears to be slightly larger, and perhaps more importantly, the description preview has been removed.
Chrome 88 (left) vs. Chrome 89 (right)
It’s interesting to see Google experimenting with removing the callout text. In most cases, they’re too short to provide useful context or additional information, and removing them potentially allows more articles to appear on screen at once.
Google is testing a new interface for the Site Info pop-up on Android, which appears when you tap the “ I ” icon or the lock icon in the address bar. The pop-up window normally displays the full address, security information for the page, and a list of granted permissions. Chrome 89 includes a new flag (# page-info-discovery) that updates the design of the pop-up window.
Left: Old user interface; Center, right: New user interface
The new pop-up adapts better to the updated Google design language, and you can revoke permissions without opening Chrome’s normal settings panel.
NFC Web API
Google began testing NFC in web applications with the release of Chrome 81. This release added initial support for the NFC web API, allowing sites to read and write NFC tags. It is mainly intended for inventory management, conferences, museum exhibits and everywhere else, NFC is used frequently. As of Chrome 89, the NFC web API is enabled by default on Android.
Chrome Dev Summit 2019 NFC Web Demo
NFC web API is limited to reading and writing NDEF data, so low level operations like ISO-DEP, NFC-A / B, NFC-F are not supported. Peer-to-peer communication mode and host-based card emulation (HCE) will also not work. Unfortunately, that probably rules out any chance that someone will create an Amiibo creator web app.
As with microphones, cameras, and other hardware features, NFC requires permission to be granted from a pop-up window. It will be interesting to see how the API is used in the years to come.
Web sharing on the desktop
Chrome on Android has supported the Web Share APIs and Web Share Target APIs for quite some time now, allowing web apps to send and receive data with Android’s native share menu. The features have done a lot of blurring the lines between native and web apps on Android, but unfortunately they weren’t available on desktop platforms (except with Safari on macOS) … until now.
Web Sharing on Chrome OS 89
With the release of Chrome 89, web sharing (where web apps can open the System Sharing dialog box) is now available on Windows and Chrome OS, and web apps can function as a target on Chrome OS. Developers won’t have to add any additional code for the feature to work on desktop platforms.
Other changes
As always, this update includes changes for users and developers. Here are some minor changes included in Chrome 89:
- Chrome added support for text fragment links in 2019, which are links that automatically scroll to a certain text string. Google search started using them in 2020, and websites can now change the appearance of highlighted parts with the new CSS :: target-text pseudo-element.
- Chrome 89 can load AVIF content natively using AV1 decoders on Android and WebView.
- The ‘list-style-type’ CSS property supports two new keywords: ‘open-disclosure’ and ‘closed-disclosure’.
- The default value of the CSS ‘display’ property for
has been changed from ‘block’ to ‘list-item’. - Chrome now supports the CSS “overflow: clip” property, which allows web pages to disable any type of scrolling for a box. It uses less RAM than “overflow: hidden”, which is often used for the same purpose.
- Google has added a new Cross Origin Reporting API for Sites to track usage across different web domains.
- Sites can now detect if the current device is set to high contrast display mode, using the new CSS media query with forced colors (similar to how detection works for dark mode).
- Some legacy prefixed events (webkitprerenderstart, webkitprerenderstop, webkitprerenderload, and webkitprerenderdomcontentloaded) have been removed.
- Chrome now supports the “await” keyword at the top level in JavaScript modules.
- The chrome: // media-internals page will be removed in Chrome 91, and Chrome 89 includes a new flag (# enable-media-internals) that toggles access to the page.
- The new # enable-table-ng flag is available in Chrome 89, which enables the new Blink table layout engine, TableNG.
- There is a new flag to enable “a rich backsheet” for installing Progressive Web Apps on Android, # mobile-pwa-install-use-bottom-sheet, but it doesn’t seem to do anything yet. is.
- When you enter a website in the Chrome address bar, it currently adds “http: //” to the front by default. Chrome 89 has a new flag (# omnibox-default-typed-navigations-to-https) that changes this behavior, and if the website does not appear to support HTTPS, Chrome will revert to the HTTP URL.
- Chrome 89 initially supports XFA forms in the PDF reader.
- A new flag, # read-later-reminder-notification, adds a pop-up when an article in your reading list has not been read for a week.
- The Serial Web API, which allows web applications to communicate with hardware over serial connections, is now enabled by default on Windows and Chrome OS. It was previously only enabled by default on Android.
- The WebHID API makes it easier for sites to use gamepads and other interface devices, and it’s enabled by default with Chrome 89.
Download
The APK is signed by Google and updates your existing app. The cryptographic signature ensures that the file can be installed safely and has not been tampered with in any way. Rather than waiting for Google to transfer this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it like any other APK.
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