Google Chrome 42 Now Available With Push Notifications and More

Google on Tuesday pushed out the next version of Google Chrome, Chrome 42 to a stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux. The new browser version touts its new push and notification APIs as part of its Web Platform, along with the additions of apps and extensions APIs. It also brings several bug and security fixes. The update is yet to reach Android and iOS devices.

The firm says it has thrown-in a number of under-the-hood changes for improved stability and performance. Also included are the 45 security fixes found by security researchers. "We would also like to thank all security researchers that worked with us during the development cycle to prevent security bugs from ever reaching the stable channel," stated the Google Chrome Release blog post.

The highlight of the Chrome 42 is its push API and notifications API, which together enable sites to send users notifications even after the Web page is closed. Google says users will have to explicitly grant permissions to enable this feature.

The feature if enabled will let developers use Google Cloud Messaging to reach the service worker (a browser script that runs in the background) to send notifications. The notification will feature a Site Settings option for users to be able to disable notifications from that site.

Google last month announced that Chrome 42 will be the last update for devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The company alongside also revealed that Google Chrome 43 can be expected to be released by the end of May.

Detailing a bit more on the engineering of a Chrome version, the Chromium Projects page noted, "While the number of Ice Cream Sandwich devices is shrinking, supporting them in terms of engineering effort and technical complexity is increasingly difficult over time. Each new feature or web capability that's added to Chrome must be built and tested for ICS. Often workarounds and special cases have to be added specifically for ICS, and that adds code complexity, slows performance, and increases development time."