Sharing web pages is now easier
PC/Mac/Linux versions one new page sharing screen. This aims to bring the sharing experience closer to what is done on smartphones. At the moment many sites do indeed offer their own share buttons, but the user did not have access to a more complete panel.
If a site supports it, the share button will now display a new local menu offering all possible sharing options available and discovery of nearby devices and users.
Chrome 89 lets some sites use NFC
This is Android only, it shouldn’t really have an impact at first, but it could revolutionize our interactions in daily life. Chrome 89 now allows Web Apps to access Android NFC. Until now, only native apps could access this feature.
Google mentions some pretty clever apps in the first place, such as displaying additional information in museums, managing inventory, and managing guests at conferences.
Chrome 89 no longer supports machines with legacy x86 CPUs
Chrome 89 is ending support for older x86 processors. Machines running Chrome will now need to carry a processor compatible with SSE3 (Additional Streaming SIMD Extensions 3). Almost 15 years have passed since all processors supported this protocol.
There’s also a lot for developers
Chrome 89 is especially rich in new features for developers. Many of these new features are detailed on the Chromium Blog. Among them:
- Debugging support for Trusted Types violations
- Lighthouse panel upgraded to Lighthouse 7
- Chrome 89 supports AVIF format decoding on Android
- New API for analyzing multi-domain site requests
- Mandatory color display detecting device display mode
How to Upgrade to Chrome 89
There is few options. You can download Chrome 89 directly from Google. The alternative is to try to update your browser manually by going to settings. If you do nothing, Google will automatically update your browser in a few days..
Of course, it is also recommended to update your operating system to put the odds on your side. As you’ll see in the video below, for example, Chrome won’t be available on Windows 7 PCs anytime soon. During updates, the browser needs more and more protocols, APIs, and components for the advanced system.
