Chrome 73 Arrives With Support For Hardware Media Keys, PWAs and Dark Mode On Mac

An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Google today launched Chrome 73 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The release includes support for hardware media keys, PWAs and dark mode on Mac, and the usual slew of developer features. You can update to the latest version now using Chrome's built-in updater or download it directly from google.com/chrome. Chrome 73 supports Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) on macOS. These apps install and behave like native apps (they don't show the address bar or tabs). Google killed off Chrome apps last year and has been focusing on PWAs ever since. Adding Mac support means Chrome now supports PWAs on all desktop and mobile platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and iOS. Chrome now also supports dark mode on Apple's macOS; dark mode for Windows is on the way, the team promises.

The VentureBeat report includes a long list of developer features included in this release, as well as all the security fixes found by external researchers. Chrome 73 implements a total of 60 security fixes.

Re:

[acroyear]

This is being able to install apps 1) with open APIs rather than proprietary - real localStorage support rather than their hack-job callback crap, for example - and 2) no need to actually submit to a web store for acceptance.

Yeah, eventually somebody need to make a "PWA Store" that catalogs these apps by feature set, but Google's current approach to that is garbage, as it still requires a lot of unnecessary signing and packaging, going against the entire grain of how PWAs were supposed to make deployment an

The PWA support is pretty good.

[acroyear]

Basically, you hit the 3-dot menu and if all the features are right (manifest, icons, https, and service worker), you'll see the option "Install ...". Doing so will add it to your Apps collection, and then when you open it, it'll open in its own window, with its own Dock icon that you can pin.

Instant 'app', just add water.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally, I blame Tim Apple.

Re:

[acroyear]

mind you, it would be nice if it worked. the beta flag had been working perfectly fine at home. here in the office where i'd not turned it on? not so much. my app freezes up on startup.

Now with more

[AHuxley]

ad support.

Dark Mode

[ben_kelley]

... is a fad. Someone needed to say it.

Shortcut add/remove in new tab broken?

[Suren Enfiajyan]

Am I the only one who's new tab page shortcut add/remove is broken?

they need to undo the last "feature" update

[slashmydots]

HOPEFULLY it gets rid of this awful webp garbage they've been pushing. It doesn't work with facebook, discord, Windows 10, Photoshop, Skype, and I could go on. It's utterly useless and it's driving me away from websites. Go back to JPGs!

Chrome supports PWA on iOS

[Merk42]

...at least as best they can what with iOS's shitty support of PWAs. Steve Jobs was ahead of his time, now Tim Apple just cares about that sweet sweet App Store revenue.

modes

[fluffernutter]

Do people really bother to change the mode? How does this change my overall experience?