Google Chrome 49 Brings Smoother Scrolling and More to Desktop

Google on Wednesday started rolling out the stable version of Chrome 49 on OS X, Windows, and Linux. The new browser version includes several bug fixes along with number of developer APIs and new user-facing features.

One of the key new features of the Chrome 49 is smooth scrolling functionality. Users would now experience a smoother mouse scroll while browsing webpages. The browser version comes with 26 security fixes, most of which were detected using AddressSanitizer, Control Flow Integrity, and MemorySanitizer codes, says the blog post. The internal teams have also fixed some vulnerabilities using Chrome V8 engine, while making some JavaScript improvements.

As a part of Chrome 49, websites can now send a lighter version of the web page by detecting if the user has turned on the data saving feature or not. As for APIs, the new MediaRecorder API will let websites record audio and video without the need of a plugin, Flash for instance. The Background Sync API will enable sites schedule a sync when an Internet connection is detected the next time, even when the page is closed by the user.

In the meanwhile, Chrome 49 for mobile devices (iOS and Android) is still in beta, but since the desktop version is out already, the mobile version will be reaching within next few days. All the other upcoming developer and user-facing features are listed on the company's Chrome 49 Beta blog post.