Chrome for Android is getting a new update bringing the version number to V68. This update brings the HTTP ‘Not secure’ warning as well as Spectre and redirects protections. It also gets a new tab switcher similar to Android P and also a new “Add to Home screen” prompt.
This update brings the long-running Google plan for HTTPS push as it involves marking HTTP sites as “Not secure” in the Omnibar. this behavior was first implemented last year with HTTP sites in Incognito mode. Google notes that 76% of Chrome traffic on Android is now protected, and this is up from 42%, around 85% of the Chrome traffic on Chrome OS is now protected and this is up from 67%, lastly, 83 of the top 100 sites on the web use HTTPS by default.
In the security front, Chrome 68 brings Site Isolation to Android and this is a technique for fixing Spectre. It involves rendering pages in separate processes to prevent malicious sites from stealing passwords, cookies, and additional data from other open tabs. Users can also manually enable this with “chrome://flags/#enable-site-per-process” flag.
The Chromium’s Certificate Transparency policy requires that Certificate Authorities maintain publicly available logs for all SSL certificates issued. This move is aimed to verify best practices and so with Chrome 68, all certificates issued after April 30, 201,8 have to feature these logs. Furthermore, it adds a new ‘Add to Home screen” prompt and a new mini infobar. This change will let developers surface their own U. I letting users know they can manually install the site on their home screen.
The new tab switcher looks like Android P’s Recent menu; horizontal tab switcher. With Chrome 68, users gestures are needs before the browser automatically navigates to content with a different origin.