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What’s new in Chrome 103?

Android

What’s new in Chrome 103?

Chromium-based browsers get Chrome 103 today. There are three new desktop choices and one update for Chrome on Android. Update to 103 if you want websites to load quicker and more prompts disabled.

Websites should load more quickly

Google’s Chrome 103 browser now supports 103 Early Hints informative answers (the 103s in each title are a simple coincidence). This response code enables web pages to preload before the user ever clicks the link, which can save loading speeds by several hundred milliseconds. This modest gain in performance may not seem like much, but over time, it might save Chrome users a substantial amount of cumulative load time. How will you utilize your extra milliseconds?

You should encounter fewer alert prompts

How many websites do you want to receive updates from? The answer, if you’re like me, is “none of them.” And yet, so many websites send notification prompts every time you visit them, just in case you want continual Chrome updates from them throughout the day (or unintentionally click “yes” while attempting to remove them).

Chrome 103 addresses this issue: Chrome will now automatically block these prompts for you using machine learning if it determines that you do not wish to receive website alerts. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if it blocked all notification requests outright, but this is a step in the right direction.

Web applications can use fonts installed on your machine

Chrome 103 is the first version in which online programs can use fonts installed on your computer without requesting permission. It’s a little tweak, but it should make PWAs seem more like regular apps.

Android: Clean up your new tabs (beta)

When you start a new tab on Chrome for Android, the “Discover” feed will appear, displaying alerts and news that the browser believes you would find interesting. However, the majority of users are uninterested in these highlights, especially if they have opened a new tab for a specific purpose. The beta version of Chrome 103 contains a new flag to permanently disable the Discover and Following feeds.

If you are using the beta version of Chrome, navigate to chrome:/flags#feed-ablation and activate the flag. When you start a new tab in the future, neither the Discover nor Following feeds will be displayed. If you ever wish to view them again, simply return to the URL for the flag and disable it.

New developer capabilities

With each Chrome release, new developer features are added. Because I’m not a developer, I don’t usually profit from these upgrades, but you can view the list of new features on the developer site and Chromium blog.

How to upgrade to version 103 of Google Chrome

To update Chrome, select Help > About Google Chrome by clicking the three dots in the upper-right corner of the browser window. Permit Chrome to check for updates: When 103 is available, it will be displayed here. Chrome 103 is installed when clicking “Relaunch.”

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