Google updated the Chrome desktop browser with Custom Elements V1, BroadcastChannel and more.
Wednesday, the Google updated to Chrome 54 and will be rolling out on Windows, Mac and Linux in the upcoming days. If Google nicknamed its browser releases, then Chrome 54 should have been named “Desserts for Developers.” Along with the usual bug fixes (totaling $28,633.70 in bug bounties), the new release treats developers with some long-awaited goodies.
Here are the top three new features in Chrome 54:
- Custom Elements V1. While all major browser vendors agreed to support the Custom Elements V1 specification, at the time of writing, Chrome 54 is the only browser to support the specification (the current stable Opera version is 40). Custom Elements V1 allows developers to implement custom HTML tags (get ready for weird tags) and define API and behavior in JavaScript. Google will maintain support for V0 specs, allowing developers to make a gradual switch to the new spec.
- BroadcastChannel API. Another important feature added to Chrome 54 is BroadcastChannel API. This will allow full-duplex one-to-many messaging between browser windows, tabs, iframes and workers by subscribing to a specific BroadcastChannel. While this feature won’t eliminate async JavaScript, it should make life easier for developers working on complex apps (e.x.: web editors that open documents in separate windows/tabs) that use multiple browser windows or tabs. Firefox 38 and Opera 41 also support this feature.
- Resource Timing API. A nice touch is the Resource Timing API which supports transfer, encoded and decoded size attributes, allowing developers to measure byte usage.
Finally, Google 54 will rewrite the old YouTube flash embeds style into HTML5 embed style. This the final preparation for the anticipated move to ditch Flash for good. Starting from December, HTML will be the default media experience on Chrome.
Google also does a little housekeeping ant removes obsolete elements such as VGZoomEvent, SVGSVGElement.currentView, SVGSVGElement.useCurrentView, SVGViewSpec interface or SVGSVGElement.viewport as they are no longer part of the SVG 2.0 specification.
The full list of features and bug fixes is available here.
Chrome can be updated from the “About” section in the browser, or by downloading the new version from Chrome’s website.
Chrome for Android Also Gets an Update!
The Android version of Google Chrome also got updated. The main feature is the ability to download web pages, videos, etc. for later viewing when an internet connection is not available. The “New Tab” page also got a redesign and, based on your browsing history, will suggest pages and articles that may be of interest.
The new version tweaks the Element.requestFullScreen() so a developer can use this element to trigger full-screen mode after a screen orientation change. A handy feature for the dev preoccupied with UX.
Another long awaited feature — the ability to play videos while scrolling or multitasking — is here. This behavior is present in most modern desktop browsers and was delayed on Android because of performance related concerns.
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The update will be delivered via Google Play.
