Just earlier this month, Google had rolled out the latest Chrome 55 version 55.0.2883.84 update for the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.
The previous update had brought along with it a major change as the browser had finally switched to HTML5 as the default player from Flash. Now, the latest update of Chrome 55 has rolled out a feature that will allow the users to easily save their photos, videos, and even the web pages for viewing them later in an offline mode. Apart from this, the latest update also comes with a bunch of stability fixes and a couple of new features. This updated version of Google Chrome 55 will be available at the Google Play Store for the Android users.
Download Files to View While Offline
Google had mentioned in its blog post that with the latest update, Chrome 55 on the Android platform has brought in the ability for the users to download music files, videos, and also complete web pages easily, which can be viewed later in an offline mode.
The users will have the save icon, which is depicted by a downward arrow that will be available next to the audio player or the video player, which can be tapped to initiate the download of the HTML5 video and audio files that will keep happening in the background. This can be done for all the audio and video files on HTML5 as long as the content is not a streamed one or if the site has implemented any custom controls. The amount of space that has been taken up by the downloaded file can be seen in the ‘Downloads’ section of the browser.
All the downloaded content will be saved and arranged in a chronological order in the new Downloads tab. The Downloads section will also show the complete list of the downloads which will be sub-divided again according to the different file types categorizing them into pages, documents, images, audio, and video. The web pages can be saved for offline use by just clicking on the download button that is present in the Chrome menu. The file will be saved on the device until it is deleted manually.
According to the search giant, the users will now be able to not just see, but also share their downloaded files from within the browser itself.
Sharing Web Pages
The Google Chrome 55 supports the new API for Web Sharing, wherein the web pages can be used to share the content directly with apps that have installed on the Android device. This means that the websites can now implement their very own Share button, which will exactly work like the share button that is present on the native Android applications. This API is however in just its early stages. This feature is currently available only as an Origin Trial, which means that the sites will have to opt-in for enabling this feature until the API is completed. This can, however, be a little unsafe with the internet full of malicious pages tricking the users. To prevent such fraudulent pages from taking advantage of the user, Google has made sure that only the HTTPS links can be shared and that too only when it is triggered by a user gesture, like pressing a button to do so.
Spell Checker
Apart from downloading files to view in the offline mode, this latest update brings along a feature that will highlight all the words that have been misspelled in the text fields within the browser. So this will be really helpful to those users who are very particular about sending out the right messages that are free of any spelling errors.
According to Google, the latest update will also bring along with it a few improvements related to the contextual search user interface within the browser. The minor tweaks to the user interface are expected to make the user experience more smooth and seamless.
Other Fixes
Apart from these two major additions and improvements, the latest update of Google Chrome 55 arrives with a couple of more bug fixes and with the other performance-related improvements as well, including optimizations to the V8, which is the JavaScript engine of Chrome.
Updates for Developers
The latest updates have brought along with a host of new abilities like the Input handling improvements, Async and await functions, CSS automatic hyphenation, and Persistent storage, which can be taken advantage of by the web developers.
The latest update of Chrome 55 for the Android users is also further bound to benefit the devices which have a low memory because of the reduction of JavaScript Heap Size and Zone Memory Reduction. Google has said that the updated features will roll out in the next couple of days for the Android devices.
I just installed chrome 55 .2883.75 and do not see any of the improvements whats up