Browser Update: Here's what's new and coming for Google Chrome this week

Despite the pandemic, Google’s Chrome engineers continue to beaver away, adding new features to their browser.

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Below is a collection of minor new features that have been revealed over the last week, and which did not necessarily qualify for articles on their own.

Share pictures via QRCode.

Google is working on the ability to generate a QR Code for pictures via the context menu of the browser.

A new entry in the image context menu has been added in the Canary version (v86.0.4219.0) of Chrome. Users will then be able to scan the code on their smartphone and easily load the picture there.

Chrome adds ‘Show annotations’ button to PDF Viewer

Google has added a button to ‘Show annotations’  to PDF Viewer in Chrome 86.

The button would allow users to hide and show annotations, which are currently shown by default.

The feature can be activated with the #pdf-viewer-update behind chrome://flags.

Google working on Tab Search feature for Chrome

As part of the Tab Group feature Google is currently working on, the company is also working on a Tab Search function. 

The Tab Search feature would allow users to search for tabs they have already opened in their Chrome browser. In addition to opened tabs, the Tab Search feature will also incorporate Tab Groups and windows in Chrome.

The actual implementation is still not clear, but the Tab Search feature is likely to be accessible through a Bubble View button on the browser toolbar and the Control+Shift+E shortcut.

Google is limiting push notification subscriptions to 90 days

Chrome is adding a new #Push-Subscription-With-Expiration-Time feature that will limit push notification subscriptions to 90 days. This flag will enable Push Subscriptions to support an expiration time.

The feature should show up in Chrome 86 and will likely in the final UI offer the user more options about how long they will remain subscribed to push notifications. The feature may ironically increase the adoption of push notifications, as users will feel subscribing is less of a commitment.

Chrome 85 now installs to Program Files

Lastly, Google has finally updated the Google Chrome installer to install the 64-bit Chrome to Program Files folder on Windows. The change is now available in Chrome 85 beta and Chrome 86 dev builds.

Previously Google ignored Windows and CPU architecture and extract installation files to the Program Files (x86) directory.

Since Chrome no longer supports 32bit Windows that directory no longer made sense.

Most of these changes are currently available in the developer versions of Chrome, which can be downloaded here.