In addition to introducing some search-related changes to Chrome for Android, Google also redesigned Chrome downloads on the web. This change is coming to Chrome for desktop, regardless of the platform.
Google Chrome Senior Product Manager, Jasika Bawa, says that this needed to be done, as the legacy Chrome download experience “had its problems”, despite the fact it served customers well.
He says that the legacy setup “occupied precious pixels at the bottom of the screen”, and “didn’t go away automatically”. On top of that, he explained that the legacy setup was no longer “modern, interactive, and consistent”.
Google is pushing out a redesigned Chrome downloads experience on the web
Now, the new download tray is available to the right of the Chrome address bar. This will replace the downloads experience that was available at the bottom too. When a download is in progress, you’ll see an animated ring that’ll help you monitor it. A toast message will open once the download is finished, and it’ll close itself if you don’t interact with it. That way, it won’t bother you for long if you don’t plan on acting on it immediately.
In the new download tray, you can now see a list of all your downloads from the past 24 hours. That goes for any browser window, by the way, not just the one you used to kick off those downloads.
You’ll also see some in-line options in that tray, such as an option to open the folder a download is in, cancel a download, retry a download, and so on.
Chrome will continue to keep you safe while you browse online
Google also highlighted that Chrome will continue to provide “clear warning signs of potential malware or viruses and block harmful downloads”. The company will even provide you with more info if that happens now, more than before.
This seems to be a nice change on Google’s part, as the downloads tray really does stay out of the way, and seems to be more streamlined now. The redesigned UI is rolling out as we speak.
