Google pushed Chrome 96 to the stable channel, and we all know what this means: Chrome 97 has just been promoted to beta. The new release brings a few select refinements and improvements, but nothing too earth-shattering. You can expect some simplifications when you want to delete local data saved by a website, enhanced support for international keyboard layouts (yes, that’s a problem to this day), preparations for better HDR support, and some minor PWA advancements.
Website data deletion improvements
Google announced in a blog post that it has simplified storage controls in Chrome 97 by re-configuring its Privacy and Security settings. It’s now possible to delete all data stored by a website by heading to Settings -> Privacy and Security -> Site Settings -> View permissions and data stored across files. This overview will replace the more granular controls that allowed you to delete individual cookies. Google says that’s because doing so could lead to unintended behavior that could potentially break websites.
The option to delete individual cookies will remain available in DevTools, though. Google says the granular control is usually only needed by developers, so it’s tucking the tools away from the places where regular folks could stumble upon them.
Better international keyboard support in desktop Chrome
This might not be a problem you’ll ever run into when using a US keyboard, but if you live anywhere else in the world, you might have run into this already — websites will sometimes default to the US keyboard layout, even if your actual physical keyboard has other symbols written on them. Since Chrome’s support for keyboards is pretty solid, this should be an edge case, but there are some occasions where developers need to be extra vigilant to make sure their websites understand which key you meant to hit. A new API makes it easier for websites to fetch which keyboard you’re using, with these improvements being particularly important for Office web apps running inside other instances like Outlook or Teams. As you may have guessed from this example, this is a fix introduced by Microsoft and will also come to Edge.
HDR improvements for CSS
What started as an experiment in Chrome 94 is going live in Chrome 97. Web developers can now use CSS to poll whether the screen their website is currently displayed on supports HDR content. With these panels increasingly becoming the norm, it’s a more than welcome change.
Installed web apps will feel even more native on desktop
Progressive web apps you install on your computer can now display content on the top app bar, allowing them to show elements like search bars, titles, or navigation buttons right at the top, in the otherwise wasted space. We’ve previously covered this when it first launched as an experiment in Chrome 93.
You can test how this looks like yourself by getting the Chrome Beta for your desktop and then installing this demo website on your device.
Per-site page zoom on mobile
Websites sometimes just won’t fit your screen or scale weirdly, and that’s where page zoom comes in handy on desktop. That feature is also making its way onto your phone, albeit behind a flag. When you enable chrome:flags#enable-accessibility-page-zoom, you’ll be able to adjust and save zoom levels on a per-site basis, allowing you to view, say, Android Police in 90% and New York Times in 110% every time you visit.
We previously covered here, if you want an in-depth guide on how to use this and what this is.
Preparing for three-digit version numbers
Chrome is soon going to be 100 years, I mean, versions old, and that will create some problems, as websites are used to check for two-digit version numbers when they want to judge compatibility. That’s why starting with Chrome 96 (the version that just went stable), a flag has been added that returns ‘100’ when checked for the version number. This will allow developers to prepare their websites for the inevitable Chrome 100 launch in a few months.
Chrome 97 is now rolling out to the beta channel. You can get it on your phone using the Play Store or APK Mirror, and it’s available for desktop machines on the Chrome website.
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