Google has released Chrome 67 on Windows, Mac, and Linux, adding better support for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).
“The Chrome team is delighted to announce the promotion of Chrome 67 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux,” Google’s Krishna Govind notes in the announcement post. “This will roll out over the coming days/weeks.”
There are a number of small improvements in Chrome 67, including enhancements to a Site Isolation feature that “improves Chrome’s security and helps mitigate the risks posed by Spectre.” But the thing I’m most interested in here, of course, is Chrome’s new support for PWAs.
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The goal here is for Chrome to now promote PWAs as apps that can be installed on the local PC. This is similar to how PWAs can (but don’t always) work in Chrome for Android: You’re literally given a pop-up that explains that you can install the app. Once the app is installed, it should present a native-ish look and feel, with no browser chrome, much like the experience you got when you created a web page shortcut in Chrome previously.
And … I’m not seeing this in Chrome 67 for Windows. (I tried Starbucks, Spotify, and Twitter.) That is, when I navigate to these sites, there’s no “install” prompt or whatever.
(Update: I’m not seeing an install pop-up in Chrome OS, either. But I do see an “Install” item in the Chrome menu on Chrome OS. This never appears in Windows.)
What I do see in Chrome 67 is a nice dull gray title bar/tab area, which is a huge improvement over the stark white look you got previously in Windows 10. Chrome already looked better on other systems, but now it looks good in Windows 10 too. So that’s nice.
I’ll keep trying on the PWA thing. If/when this works, it will be huge.
UPDATE: You still have to enable flags in chrome://flags/ as noted in the comments. So this isn’t quite final. But now I’m curious if this works on the Mac, where Chrome has never supported the create shortcut functionality. —Paul
skane2600
<p>I can't respond directly to a Premium comment, but ..</p><p><br></p><p>jimchamplin: "A Windows where the desktop is rendered by the browser?</p><p><br></p><p>Wheeeeeere have I seen that before?"</p><p><br></p><p>Exactly, Jim. Based on Paul's response it seems he's forgotten about Windows Active Desktop.</p>
skane2600
<p> It's kind of funny because for years we've tried to train people not to install anything on their PC that was unsolicited. So the well-trained PC user would probably click "Cancel"</p>