Chrome 57 Released for Mac, Windows, and Linux Users; Android and Chrome OS Users to Get It Soon

Google's Chromium team has announced that the global rollout of the Chrome 57 stable version is rolling out for Mac, Linux, and Windows users. The new version brings a grid layout system for developers, but most of the changes are reserved mainly for Chrome OS users and Android users, the updates for which will be rolled out soon.

The Chrome 57 stable channel 57.0.2987.98 has started rolling out, and should arrive gradually to all Mac, Windows, and Linux users in the coming weeks. In order to support responsive layouts, Chrome integrates a two-dimensional grid layout system in the CSS Grid Layout that essentially tries to make the work of the developers easy, while maintaining and supporting designs on various screen sizes - big or small. Apart from this, the new version also fixes as many as 36 vulnerabilities. There's also a new badge that notifies a user whether they are on a secure Chrome page or not, and the ability to install Android kiosk apps on any Chrome device is also added. This is useful for retail displays in stores especially.

Chrome 57 for Android is set to bring a new Media Session API that gives more controls on media notifications, that essentially allows sites to provide more metadata to the browser. This includes featuring of background lock screen artwork and showing other info like album name, artist etc. Support for actions like seeking and skipping will also be supported. It also will bring the ability to add Progressive Web Apps to the home screen, appear in app drawers as well as system settings. This update will also introduce access to Android management controls instead of Chrome's.

With all of this Chrome 57 for iOS will also arrive soon hopefully. 9to5Mac reports that one of the features that will come along is the Reading List feature that is already available in Safari. The Reading List feature in Safari lets you save articles for later to read, and segregates it into 'Unread' and 'Pages You've Read' options. This feature is being tested in the Chrome beta build for iOS, so it's likely to arrive in the stable version soon.