Google Chrome 69 to Bring Notch Support, Media Playback for Android Go Devices

While Google is enhancing the user experience on Chrome 68 by enabling native notification support for Windows 10 Action Center, Chrome 69 has reached the beta channel as the successor to the iteration that was launched last month. The new Chrome version brings intrinsic support for display notch designs. Google notably released developer guidelines to start supporting display notches late last month, and the next Pixel model is likely to adopt a notch - similar to the iPhone X. Chrome 69 is also found to have an option to double as a media player for Android Go.

Among other features, Android Police reports that Google has added the same 'safe-area-inset' properties to Chrome 69 that were previously a part of Apple's Safari. The CSS attributes were designed by Apple to help websites have an appropriate layout for the notched display of the iPhone X. Interestingly, Google is said to have followed the footsteps of the Cupertino giant and brought the same attributes to the next Chrome version. This will help web developers make websites notch-friendly for all compatible Android and iPhone models over time.

In addition to the notch support, Chrome 69 appears to transform into a media player for Android Go devices. The low-cost hardware that runs Android 8.1 Oreo (Go edition) will be able to use the new addition to start playing media content directly through Chrome.

Importantly, Google hasn't designed a specific Go version of Chrome - unlike Google Go, Gmail Go, and Maps Go among other lightweight apps. This does make sense to give users something more from the regular Chrome browser that comes pre-installed on Android Go devices, just like standard Android devices.

Chrome 69 will also include an improved Downloads page that will get the option to sort the downloaded content and include a search button. Users who are testing the beta version of Chrome 69 can enable the new experience by turning on the #download-home-v2 flag by visiting chrome://flags.

On desktops, it has been reported that Chrome 69 will bring a picture-in-picture playback option to let users pop out a video into a floating browser and watch it while surfing other websites. The new feature is said to be designed for Windows and Mac machines. Furthermore, Google back in May announced that the next Chrome version will remove the green "Secure" badge on HTTPS sites. This is a strategy to show users that the Web is safe by default.

Google is likely to release Chrome 69 sometime next month. However, you can check some of its features via the Chrome 69 beta, by downloading the APK file on your Android device from APK Mirror.