Google Chrome releases are now happening every four weeks. Which is cool for getting new features, but it means each version is lighter on those new features. Chrome 92 first made available on July 20, 202. The new Chrome’s version includes some interesting flags and updates for web apps.
Check Up on Website Permissions
Just like mobile apps, websites can require permissions but there’s not a convenient way to track which sites you’ve granted permissions. Now, you can see permissions to the safety controls panel in Chrome 92 for Android.
When yon tap the lock icon in the address bar, a panel that lists “Permissions” will be opened. If you select this entry, you’ll be able to see which permissions have been granted, and you can turn them off individually or reset them all.
New Chrome Action for Safety Checks
In version 87, Chrome Actions were revealed as quick shortcuts from the search bar. When you type “safety check” or “run safety check” in the address bar, you’ll see a shortcut to hop directly to Chrome’s Safety Check tool. The Safety Check will immediately run and saving you a lot of time.
Web Apps Can Handle Files
It’s common to get asked which app you want to use to open a file on your Android device. Now, you can see web apps as available options. You’ll be able to open files with web apps added via Chrome once the developers have added support for it.
This change is starting on Android, and it will come to Chrome on desktops as well soon. It is on the way making web apps feel more like native apps.
Better Transitions for Web Apps
Web apps are in process for better transitions, feeling like native apps. A new set of transitions will add some extra visual polish to web apps. This will also make things easier on developers, as they won’t have to create their own transitions anymore.
Memories: A New Way to See History
Every social network has “Stories” now and Chrome is joining in—kind of. The feature is called “Memories,” and it’s essentially a new way to search your history.
At the time of writing, Memories is a experiment available under a flag (chrome://flags/#memories) on the desktop. Once it’s enabled, you’ll see a brand new UI for your history.
We’re not exactly sure what this is for now. At this time, it shows a different history than what you see at chrome://history. This is clearly still a work in progress, but Google seems to have some plans for it.
“Follow” Websites Is More Widely Available
A feature called Web Feed appeared in the early versions of Chrome 92 for Android. It’s integrated into the Chrome browser and quite similar in concept to RSS feeds. Web Feed is now more widely available and fleshed out.
You can simply “Follow” a website from Chrome instead of finding an RSS feed and adding it to your RSS reader of choice. New content will be showed on the “New Tab” page under the “Following” tab.
Better Controls for PiP Video Calls
Most of the popular video meeting apps have their web versions that work in Chrome. Google has been working on improving its experience, and Chrome 92 adds some new controls for when you pop out the video into a picture-in-picture (PiP) window.
The PiP window now shows icons to toggle on your microphone and webcam. Plus, there’s a quick shortcut to end the call. You might not see them right away since these changes are still rolling out in Chrome 92.
What Else Is New?
Chrome 92 is another release that’s light on user-facing changes, but there’s always more going on behind the scenes. You can learn more about many of these changes on Google’s developer site as well as on the Chromium blog.
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