Unless otherwise noted, changes described below apply to the newest Chrome beta channel release for Android, Chrome OS, Linux, macOS, and Windows. Learn more about the features listed here through the provided links or from the list on ChromeStatus.com. Chrome 89 is beta as of January 28, 2021.

WebHID API

There is a long tail of human interface devices (HIDs) that are too new, too old, or too uncommon to be accessible by systems' device drivers. The WebHID API solves this by providing a way to implement device-specific logic in JavaScript.

A human interface device is one that takes input from or provides output to humans. Examples of devices include keyboards, pointing devices (mice, touchscreens, etc.), and gamepads.

The inability to access uncommon or unusual HID devices is particularly painful, for example, when it comes to gamepad support. Gamepad inputs and outputs are not well standardized and web browsers often require custom logic for specific devices. This is unsustainable and results in poor support for the long tail of older and uncommon devices.

With its origin trial over, WebHID is enabled by default in Chrome 89 on desktop. To learn how to use it, check out Connecting to uncommon HID devices, and see demos in Human interface devices on the web: a few quick examples.

Web NFC

NFC stands for Near Field Communications, a short-range wireless technology for transmitting small amounts of data, usually between a specialized NFC device and a reader. If you've scanned a badge to enter a building, you may have used NFC.

Web NFC allows a web app to read from and write to NFC tags. This opens new use cases to the web, including providing information about museum exhibits, inventory management, providing information in a conference badge, and many others. In Chrome 89 on Android, Web NFC is enabled by default.

Web NFC cards demo at Chrome Dev Summit

With NFC reading and writing are simple operations. You'll need a little instruction for constructing and interpreting payloads, but it's not complicated. Fortunately, we have an article, Interact with NFC devices on the web. Check it out. We have some samples you can play with. Here's a taste:

Writing a string to an NFC tag: 

if ("NDEFReader" in window) {
  const ndef = new NDEFReader();
  await ndef.write("Hello world!");
}


Scanning messages from NFC tags:


if ("NDEFReader" in window) {
  const ndef = new NDEFReader();
  await ndef.scan();
  ndef.onreading = ({ message }) => {
    console.log(`Records read from a NFC tag: ${message.records.length}`);
  };
}


Web Serial API

A serial port is a bidirectional communication interface that allows sending and receiving data byte by byte. The Web Serial API brings this capability to websites, letting them control devices such as microcontrollers and 3D printers.


In educational, hobbyist, and industrial settings, peripheral devices are already controlled through web pages. In all such cases device control requires installation of adapters and drivers. The Web Serial API improves the user experience by enabling direct communication between a website and a peripheral. 


Its origin trial is over and the Web Serial API is now enabled on desktop. A demo is available on GitHub. For information about using it, see Read to and write from a serial port. 


Web Sharing on Desktop

To allow users to easily share content on social networks, developers have manually integrated sharing buttons into their site for each social service. This often leads to users not being able to share with the services they actually use, in addition to bloated page sizes and security risks from third-party code. On the receiving end, only platform apps could register to be share targets and receive shares from other apps.  


Chrome for Android started adding these features between Chrome 61 and 75. In Chrome 89, web sharing is available on Windows and ChromeOS, while registering as a share target is supported on ChromeOS. On these platforms, sites can now use navigator.share() on desktop to trigger a share dialog box. And an entry to the web app manifest allows a PWA to act as a share target. 


For information on web sharing, see Integrate with the OS sharing UI with the Web Share API. To learn to configure a PWA as a share target, see Receiving shared data with the Web Share Target API.


Origin Trials

There are no new origin trials in this version of Chrome. To register for current origin trials, visit the Origin Trials dashboard. To learn more about origin trials themselves, visit the Origin Trials Guide for Web Developers.


Other features in this release


AVIF Image Decode

Chrome now supports decoding AVIF content natively using existing AV1 decoders on Android and WebView. (Desktop support was added in Chrome 85.)  AVIF is a next generation image format standardized by the Alliance for Open Media. There are three primary motivations for supporting AVIF:

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A default Action Button that shares the URL is added to the top bar when the application doesn’t provide one.

What do I need to do to enable the new default share action button in?

Nothing! The default Action Button will be automatically added to the application, as long as the application doesn’t set its own. Since this change will happen in the browser, it will be automatically applied to all apps using Custom Tabs.

Please note: this is a change in Chrome’s behavior and we hope other browsers will add similar functionality.


How can I opt-out from the share icon showing in my App?

Starting with androidx.browser version 1.3.0, developers can use the setShareState() method from the CustomTabsIntent.Builder to disable the default share:

val customTabsIntent = CustomTabsIntent.Builder()

        .setShareState(CustomTabsIntent.SHARE_STATE_OFF)

        .build();


As part of this change, the addDefaultShareMenuItem() and setDefaultShareMenuItemEnabled() methods from CustomTabsIntent.Builder have been deprecated and developers should use setShareState() instead.


If your application uses Custom Tabs, we’d like to hear your feedback, and you can reach out to us using this form.


Posted by André Bandarra, Developer Relations Engineer and Chirag Desai, Product Manager

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For users who accessed Google features (like Chrome sync) through a third-party Chromium based browser, their data will continue to be available in their Google Account, and data that they have stored locally will continue to be available locally. As always, users can view and manage their data on the My Google Activity page. They can also download their data from the Google Takeout page, and/or delete it here. 

Guidance for vendors of third-party Chromium based products is available on the Chromium wiki.



Posted by Jochen Eisinger, Engineering Director, Google Chrome 
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