Chrome 70 releases with support for Desktop Progressive Web Apps on Windows and Linux

Yesterday, Google announced the release of Chrome 70. This version comes with support for Desktop Progressive Web apps on Windows and Linux and for public key credentials. Also, web Bluetooth is now supported for Windows 10 users.

Support for Desktop Progressive Web Apps on Windows and Linux

You can now install Desktop Progressive Web Apps on Windows and Linux. Once installed, they’re launched from the Start menu, and run like any other installed app, without an address bar or tabs.

Credential Management API supports Public Key Credentials

Signing in has become very simple with the introduction of the Credential Management API. It enables the communication between your site and the browser’s credential manager or federated account services like Google and Facebook to sign in.

One more credential type named, Public Key Credential is introduced. It allows web applications to create and use, strong, cryptographically attested, and application-scoped credentials to authenticate users.

Named workers

With the help of workers, you can move JavaScript off the main thread and into the background. This will keep your site interactive as it will prevent the main thread from locking up when it is running an expensive or complex JavaScript computation.

A new name attribute is added for workers in Chrome 70, which is specified by an optional argument on the constructor:

const url = '/scripts/my-worker.js';

const wNYC = new Worker(url, {name: 'NewYork'});

const oSF = {name: 'SanFrancisco'};

const wSF = new Worker(url, oSF);

You can now easily distinguish dedicated workers by name when you have multiple workers with the same URL.

Miscellaneous updates

Web Bluetooth is available for Windows 10 users. It allows your site to securely communicate with nearby user-selected Bluetooth devices.

Chrome can now send intervention and deprecation messages to your servers using the Report-To HTTP Response header field or surface them in the ReportingObserver interface.

Deprecations in Chrome 70

AppCache from insecure contexts removed

AppCache potentially allows persistent online and offline cross-site scripting attacks, when used over insecure contexts. To avoid these attacks, AppCache is now only supported on origins that serve over HTTPS. Developers are advised to use service workers as an alternative.

Gamepads.item() deprecated and removed

The legacy item() accessor is no longer a part of the Gamepads array. This change improves compatibility with Firefox, the only browser to implement GamepadList.