Version 75 of desktop Chrome for Windows, Mac, and Linux is rolling out starting today, bringing a slew of security patches, UI fixes, and a few under the hood changes aimed at making the experience of using the browser smoother. The majority of the changes for those operating systems seem geared towards making preparations for future updates and trimming away at things that had been bogging things down.
Getting security updates out of the way first, most of the specifics of incoming fixes are going to be kept under wraps until several weeks from now — after the majority of users have the update installed. The company does list out no fewer than 42 fixes with Chrome 75, however.
Of those listed as having been discovered by external developers, two of those security updates fix what’s considered a high-level risk. That’s just a step down from the most important vulnerabilities which would be noted as “critical.” Eight of those are listed as a medium risk while four are listed as low-level vulnerabilities.
One or two user-facing features and digging in under the hood
On the user-facing side of the equation, Google has implemented a few developer features that should make the entire experience better. For starters, the changelog for Chrome 75 points to the addition of a “Scroll Snap Stop” feature that puts gesture-based scrolling further into the hands of web developers.
Summarily, pages that take advantage of the feature can now be designed with designated snap spots to prevent over scrolling on pages where a user’s gestures might be too much for the content that’s being displayed. The change is provided alongside the example of a gallery where a quick, long swipe would cause the page to overshoot the next image instead of jumping to the next image and coming to a stop.
Users who are utilizing physical security keys can now add an additional bit of protection to those via a PIN by navigating to the “Privacy and security menu” in the “Advanced” section of the settings menu. The new tool is tucked in that menu under “Manage security keys” and an option to “Create a PIN” that shows up if a security device is plugged in. All data can be erased on a security key in that same menu.
System-level sharing between apps has been added with Chrome 75 as well, allowing a more native sharing experience in Chrome. That’s been implemented alongside canvas element latency reductions, the deprecation of some code elements, and other behind-the-scenes alterations that will make things easier on developers and speed up the browser where implemented.
That includes Web Assembly and JavaScript changes that will generally improve performance in web apps and anywhere else those are in use.
What about Android/Chrome OS?
This update for Chrome doesn’t appear to be much more than a housekeeping update to improve overall performance and efficiency of the browser and the various architecture behind the experience. More succinctly, Chrome 75 seems to be aimed more directly at developers than at end users, as opposed to bigger changes introduced with the previous update.
That will likely remain the case with the Android and Chrome OS variants when the respective software or firmware update later on. Android updates for Chrome typically begin rolling out within just a few days of the desktop variant and Chrome OS 75 is presently scheduled to start shipping on June 11.
At least one major change is currently expected to land alongside the latter of those updates, bringing much-needed improvements to how Chrome OS works on tablet hardware such as the Google Pixel Slate.