Google today rolled out Chrome 90 to its stable channel, with automatic preference for HTTPS sites over the HTTP protocol, plus some other notable changes.
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Chrome now redirects all websites by default to use the more secure HTTPS protocol. HTTPS is encrypted with Transport Layer Security (TLS) and secures communication over networks by authenticating the website and protecting data privacy during transmission. MacRumors.com has been supporting HTTPS for some time now.
In addition, Chrome 90 uses the AV1 codec for optimized video conferencing with WebRTC. The new codec should improve compression efficiency and reduce bandwidth consumption, while improving video quality and improving connectivity on low-bandwidth connections. Screen sharing would also be more efficient as compared to the VP9 codec.
Elsewhere, users can now hide the Reading List without diving into Chrome’s flags. To do this, right-click on the bookmarks bar and uncheck the new Show Reading List option at the bottom.
Meanwhile, Chrome 90 for developers is introducing support for CSS overflow, which should help avoid scrolling within a CSS box. Google has also renamed the Feature Policy API to Permission Policy, which allows users to customize the behavior of certain APIs and web features in the browser.
In the previous version of the browser, Chrome 89 introduced Google’s live caption transcription feature, which uses machine learning to create a real-time transcription for videos or audios played through the browser.
Google Chrome for Mac is a free download that can be downloaded directly from Google’s servers. Google Chrome for iOS is a free download for iPhone and iPad available from the App Store. [Direct Link]