Google Chrome 96: What’s Good, What’s New?

Joscelyn Kate 19 Nov 2021

Google Chrome 96 — the new version of the browser — debuted 3 days ago. Let’s see what’s inside.

Google Chrome 96 is a very young update. And also poorly known: for whatever reason, Google didn’t fanfare the new version release.

Besides, it seems that the updated browser is still far from the official global premiere. In some areas, users will have to wait until it becomes downloadable. Even though the iOS update saw the light on November 9 in North America.

Interestingly, now the App Store warns you what kind of data the app will collect. In the case of Chrome 96 the following personal info will be “borrowed”:

Identifiers
Contact Info.
Financial Info
Search History, and so on.

Why on earth Google Chrome needs to know your financial data, which seemingly includes more than just e-payments, isn’t specified.

As for the new features, here’s what Chrome 96 can boast of:

A bit more security: https connection will happen if the https records can be found in the domain name service.
Manifest ID property: a unique ID for your PWA.
Performance optimization: you can manage the downloading resources with the priority hints origin trial, etc
Improved WebAssembly interoperability, and so on.

If you’re interested in developing stuff for Chrome, Google has preserved the Chrome Dev Summit videos — check them here.

All in all, the whole 96 updates look more like a testing ground for the upcoming Chrome 100. By the way, you can emulate the Chrome 100 with this flag:

#force-major-version-to-100

If you’re a developer, QA engineer, or website owner, this “forcing” could be a great way to see how well Chrome 100 will function.

Among the deprecations, the “basic-card” PaymentRequest API was deleted from the app. Instead, developers are offered to employ the likes of Apple Pay or Samsung Pay. And what feature would you like to see in Chrome? Let us know!