Chrome M85 is set to deliver on a wealth of new features, Google says. Each is geared toward productivity. But they aren’t limited to enterprise or business users this time either.
Shared via the company’s Keyword blog, the changes include previously announced or discovered changes, at least some of which have been expected since at least Chrome 81. For example, the browser will now feature a more Android-like tab switcher on touchscreen-enabled devices. That was first introduced with the Chromebook Duet from Lenovo.
It will also suggest switching to a tab if the URL being entered is already open in a different tab. Now, that’s something laptops already do but now it’ll be arriving on Android. And users will also be able to get a full thumbnail preview of tabs just by hovering the mouse over a given tab as well. That latter change is coming to Chrome Beta with the next release.
Tab grouping is making an official appearance too, but now with the ability to collapse tabs and tuck them away for a cleaner workspace. But there are also some entirely new things being added in favor of productivity and faster browsing.
What’s new, now arriving in Chrome M85?
Now, there are at least a few performance changes coming in Chrome this time around too rather than just new features for the M85 update. Those will improve performance by around 10-percent on average. But the primary focus for this particular update is productivity.
To that end, with this Chrome release as part of the milestone 85 updates, users will be able to share URLs more easily on Android and desktop via QR codes. The feature will appear, at least on desktop platforms, via a new QR icon in the address bar. It will likely have a similarly easy-to-use icon in Android. Although that may be tucked behind the share menu.
Regardless, the option will generate a QR code for sharing, similar to others but with Chrome’s loveable dinosaur mascot at the center. That’s the dino that can be viewed by loading up Chrome without an internet or data connection.
Finally, Chrome will now let users fill out and then save those changes to PDFs directly in the browser.
These are going to take some time to roll out
Now, the ability to fill out PDFs and save them in Chrome will roll out over the “next few weeks.” But not every change will arrive so quickly. In fact, the primary focus for Chrome is the above-mentioned speed improvements. And Google is working hard to keep things stable throughout those changes. So the new features will roll out slowly over time. And Google isn’t promising any specific timeframes. They should all arrive before Chrome 86 does.
