A new version of chrome has been rolled out slightly after the rollout of the Chrome 67 public release. This update brings the version to Chrome 68 and adds features like new payment handler API, adblocker Chrome redirections, changes to web app install banners, and more.
Initially, the Chrome’s adblocker was supposed to go live in Chrome 64 but has halted in the last minute, the same has happened with Chrome 65 as well, and now with V68 beta, the feature looks to have been enabled by default. However, the blocker is listed active but the discussion on the bug page hasn’t had a comment since May. So it creates more confusion if the feature would actually go live in Chrome 68.
There’s another form of page hijacking called ‘tab-under redirects.’ This form of hijacking results in when you tap a link that opens in a new tab, the original tab can redirect to another page. The blocker for this has been under development for quite some time and starting with Chrome 68, this will be enabled by default.
If you are an avid Chrome user, you will know that Chrome occasionally asks to add websites to the home screen as shortcuts, while they are handy, they take up an entire bottom portion of the screen, Chrome is now working on shrinking the banners and you will also start seeing less with Chrome 68. Chrome 53 which was released in August 2016 added support for the Payment Request API. This feature would allow sites to start using Android Pay for buying items online. While Apple’s Safari on iOS and Mac OS use Apple Pay, Chrome 68 improves on this with the Payment Handler API. This would allow web apps to function as the payment platform.
Other features include, Chrome 68 will now check for Service Worker updates more reliably, adds support for CSS position values with three parts, negative brightness values in CSS filters, and document.createTouch has been removed. You can download the APK of Chrome beta for Android and manually sideload it, in case if you haven’t received the update on PlayStore yet.