Google Chrome 70 will double security starting in October

In short: The launch of Chrome 70 on the Stable Channel is scheduled for Oct. 16 and will bring a number of security enhancements and minor performance improvements, as well as media settings. The browser will no longer display the operating system version numbers in the user agent identification header on Android. For iOS users, this change will meet platform standards and will simply freeze the number at "15E148". Other device information will always be displayed in the header, such as WebKit versions and basic information. In addition, support for TouchID fingerprint analysis is set to be added via the Web Authentication API for desktop platforms. Users will also notice that other UI changes are incorporated to highlight security on desktop platforms. Specifically, HTML 5 sites that enter full screen lose this immersive attribute when a page is encountered and is not secure or for which dialog box is displayed.

For media and input, Google is finally adding Bluetooth Web features to Windows users, allowing sites to securely connect to nearby Bluetooth devices and devices. This will be, as with other platforms, accessible via an experiment flag setting. In the same vein, WebUSB is enabled on dedicated employees to allow separation of process threads between input devices and code from the main page to improve the performance of the main thread. For mobile and desktop platforms, web developers will now be able to define "priority flags" that indicate the importance of page attributes, including type, visibility, and preload status. These will be adjustable on auto, high or low. Finally, support for AV1 decoding is added to all desktop platforms, in addition to the barcode or QR code, face detection and text on all platforms via the desktop. Shape Detection API.

Context: Many of the new features and inclusions build on or refine previous implementations in Chrome. For example, the ability for developers to support priority indicators for page attributes relies on "lazy loading" features previously observed in Canary versions in Chrome 69. A page in full mode screen relies on another recent inclusion. "Safe" dialogue from Chrome Omnibox. This means that only dangerous websites are displayed, highlighted by information that appears in this URL bar in a red coloring. By forcing unsafe pages or pages that display a dialog box to exit full screen mode, users will be able to see the context of all dialog boxes based on the security of the page. In fact, even if the page has not been marked as dangerous by Google, it offers users the ability to search for URL changes that could lead to other issues related to this dialog box. At the same time, Bluetooth Web features have been integrated with all other platforms since Chrome 57, and the actual addition to Windows is a final step in the deployment.

Impact: In general, the changes implemented here will enhance the security of Chrome and its later variants, both by putting more emphasis on things and by supporting more connection protection options. At the same time, security is also enhanced by removing unnecessary attributes that identify which device is accessing a site and securing Bluetooth channels. At the same time, performance will be more customizable from a developer's perspective with the added ability to prioritize and separate processes to their own threads for high-intensity, highly interactive Web sites or web applications. Finally, the addition of support for incoming new generation audio compression and modern detection algorithms will enhance the user experience and propose new ones. In the meantime, there will certainly be more changes in Chrome OS 70 and some of the features currently planned and available in beta channels could change or be postponed.