What’s new in the Android browser

It is a version that is already available to all users, that just by accessing the Play Store we will be able to update the Google browser and enjoy all the new functions that it offers us. We will detail this new version below in this news, whose distribution is also shared with Windows, Mac and Linux.

HTTPS by default

Let’s go with the first of the news. Until now, Google didn’t show the communication protocol in the address bar, at least by default. However, the protocol is still there, being HTTP or the most secure HTTPS, and it is now the default option when you type a web address.

That is, until now if you typed ‘Google.com’, Chrome interpreted that as ‘http://google.com’, which generally what it did was redirect to ‘https://google.com’. To save yourself the middle step, Chrome now resolves web addresses as HTTPS by default.

A codec to optimize video calls by the browser

It is one of the pillars of this new update, if not the fundamental one. Many of you will be wondering already what’s so special about this AV1 codec to deserve an almost exclusive update to Google Chrome, and the truth is that it is quite important because this new codec offers a very high compression efficiency for prevent video streams from devouring massive amounts of data on devices with limited resources.

Developed by the Alliance for Open Media, an organization that brings together such important companies under its umbrella such as Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, AMD, Nvidia or Mozilla, in addition to Google itself, its raison d’être is to improve the quality of the video streamed in streaming

even on slower internet connections or worse performance.

This is the new generation of the VP9 codec, this time open for you no one has to pay licenses to implement it, and already compatible with Mozilla Firefox for a while waiting for a giant of the sector like Google Chrome to admit it sooner or later.

Augmented reality enhancement for 3D objects

Ultimately, with Google Chrome 90 comes a new WebXR Depth Measurement API, which a web application can use to enhance the realism of rendering augmented reality experiences, such as Google’s 3D animals. With this API, it is possible to measure the distance from the device on which you are using Google Chrome, in addition to the dimensions of other objects.

Improved Chrome clipboard

Do you know how you can drag and drop files from your file manager to a website, like when you want to attach an image or PDF to an email? Chrome is working to bring that same functionality to your clipboard. Since the function is still hidden behind a flag ( chrome: // flags / # clipboard-filenames ) and needs to be activated manually for now, it will likely take quite a while until the first web applications implement it.