Google Chrome features a minimalistic user interface, with its user-interface principles later being implemented in other browsers. For example, the merging of the
address bar and search bar into the
omnibox or
omnibar.
Web standards support The first release of Google Chrome passed both the
Acid1 and
Acid2 web standards compliance tests. Beginning with version 4.0, Chrome passed all aspects of the
Acid3 test, Chrome has very good support for JavaScript/
ECMAScript according to
Ecma International's ECMAScript standards conformance Test 262 (version ES5.1 May 18, 2012). This test reports as the final score the number of tests a browser failed; hence, lower scores are better. In this test, Chrome version 37 scored 10 failed / 11,578 passed. For comparison, Firefox 19 scored 193 failed / 11,752 passed, and Internet Explorer 9 had a score of 600+ failed, while Internet Explorer 10 had a score of 7 failed. In 2011, on the official CSS 2.1 test suite by the standardization organization
W3C, WebKit, the Chrome rendering engine, passed 89.75% (89.38% out of 99.59% covered) CSS 2.1 tests. On the HTML5 web standards test, Chrome 41 scored 518 out of 555 points, placing it ahead of the five most popular desktop browsers. Chrome 41 on Android scored 510 out of 555 points. Chrome 44 scored 526, only 29 points less than the maximum score.
User interface By default, the main
user interface includes back, forward, refresh/cancel, and menu buttons. A home button is not shown by default, but can be added through the Settings page to take the user to the new tab page or a custom home page.
Tabs are the main component of Chrome's user interface and have been moved to the top of the window rather than below the controls. This subtle change contrasts with many existing tabbed browsers, which are based on
windows and contain tabs. Tabs, with their state, can be transferred between window containers by dragging. Each tab has its own set of controls, including the
Omnibox. Starting in version 3.0, the New Tab Page was revamped to display thumbnails of the eight most visited websites. The thumbnails could be rearranged, pinned, and removed. Alternatively, a list of text links could be displayed instead of thumbnails. It also features a "Recently closed" bar that shows recently closed tabs and a "tips" section that displays hints and tricks for using the browser. Starting with Google Chrome 3.0, users can install themes to alter the appearance of the browser. Many free third-party themes are provided in an online gallery, accessible through a "Get themes" button in Chrome's options. Chrome includes a
bookmarks submenu that lists the user's bookmarks, provides easy access to Chrome's
Bookmark Manager, and allows the user to toggle a
bookmarks bar on or off. On January 2, 2019, Google introduced Native Dark Theme for Chrome on
Windows 10. In 2023, it was announced that Chrome would be completely revamped, using Google's
Material You design language, the revamp would include more rounded corners, Chrome colors being swapped out for a similar dynamic color system introduced in
Android 12, a revamped address bar, new icons, and tabs, and a more simplified 3 dot menu.
Built-in tools Starting with Google Chrome 4.1, the application added a built-in translation bar using
Google Translate. Language translation is currently available for 52 languages. When Chrome detects a foreign language other than the user's preferred language set during the installation time, it asks the user whether to translate. Chrome allows users to synchronize their bookmarks, history, and settings across all devices with the browser installed by sending and receiving data through a chosen Google Account, which in turn updates all signed-in instances of Chrome. This can be authenticated either through Google credentials or a sync passphrase. For web developers, Chrome has an element inspector that allows users to look inside any web page's
Document Object Model (DOM) structure and examine the code elements that make up the webpage. Chrome has special URLs that load application-specific pages instead of websites or files on disk. Chrome also has a built-in ability to enable experimental features. Originally called about:labs, the address was changed to about:flags to make it less obvious to casual users. The desktop edition of Chrome can save pages as HTML with assets in a "_files" subfolder, or as an unprocessed HTML-only document. It also offers an option to save in the
MHTML format.
Desktop shortcuts and apps Chrome allows users to make local desktop
shortcuts that open web applications in the browser. The browser, when opened in this way, contains none of the regular interface except for the title bar, so as not to "interrupt anything the user is trying to do". This allows web applications to run alongside local software (similar to
Mozilla Prism and
Fluid). In September 2013, Google started making Chrome apps "For your desktop". This meant offline access, desktop shortcuts, and less dependence on Chrome—apps launch in a window separate from Chrome, and look more like native applications.
Chrome Web Store Announced on December 7, 2010, the Chrome Web Store allows users to install web applications as extensions to the browser, although most of these extensions function simply as links to popular web pages or games, some of the apps, like
Springpad, do provide extra features like offline access. The themes and extensions have also been tightly integrated into the new store, allowing users to search the entire catalog of Chrome extras. The Chrome Web Store was opened on February 3, 2011, with the release of Google Chrome 9.0.
Extensions Browser extensions can modify Google Chrome. They are supported by the browser's desktop edition, but not on mobile. These extensions are written using web technologies like
HTML, JavaScript, and
CSS. They are distributed through Chrome Web Store, initially known as the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery. On September 9, 2009, Google enabled extensions by default on Chrome's developer channel and provided several sample extensions for testing. In December, the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery beta began with approximately 300 extensions. It was launched on January 25, 2010, along with Google Chrome 4.0, containing approximately 1500 extensions. In 2014, Google started preventing some Windows users from installing extensions not hosted on the Chrome Web Store. The following year Google reported a "75% drop in customer support help requests for uninstalling unwanted extensions" which led them to expand this restriction to all Windows and Mac users.
Manifest V3 In October 2018, Google announced a major future update to Chrome's extension
API, known as "Manifest V3" (in reference to the
manifest file contained within extensions). Manifest V3 is intended to modernize the extension architecture and improve the security and performance of the browser; it adopts declarative APIs to "decrease the need for overly-broad access and enable more performant implementation by the browser", replaces background pages with feature-limited "Service Workers" to reduce resource usage, and prohibits remotely-hosted code. Google faced criticism for this change since it limits the number of rules and types of expressions that may be checked by ad blockers. Additionally, the prohibition of remotely-hosted code will restrict the ability for ad-blocking filter lists to be updated independently of the extension itself.
Notable examples •
Adblock Plus •
Adblock for Chrome •
Cut the Rope •
Dropbox •
Evernote Web •
Facebook Messenger •
Ghostery •
Google Maps •
HTTPS Everywhere (discontinued) •
Pandora Radio •
Pixlr Express •
Privacy Badger •
Streamus (discontinued) •
TweetDeck •
Stop Tony Meow (discontinued) •
uBlock Origin (no longer available due to terms of use change on Chrome)
Speed The JavaScript virtual machine used by Chrome, the V8 JavaScript engine, has features such as
dynamic code generation,
hidden class transitions, and
precise garbage collection. They unanimously reported that Chrome performed much faster than all competitors against which it had been tested, including
Safari (for Windows),
Firefox 3.0,
Internet Explorer 7, Opera, and
Internet Explorer 8. However, on October 11, 2010, independent tests of JavaScript performance, Chrome has been scoring just behind Opera's
Presto engine since it was updated in version 10.5. On September 3, 2008, Mozilla responded by stating that their own
TraceMonkey JavaScript engine (then in beta), was faster than Chrome's V8 engine in some tests.
John Resig, Mozilla's JavaScript evangelist, further commented on the performance of different browsers on Google's own suite, commenting on Chrome's "decimating" of the other browsers, but he questioned whether Google's suite was representative of real programs. He stated that Firefox 3.0 performed poorly on
recursion-intensive benchmarks, such as those of Google, because the Mozilla team had not implemented recursion-tracing yet. Two weeks after Chrome's launch in 2008, the WebKit team announced a new JavaScript engine,
SquirrelFish Extreme, citing a 36% speed improvement over Chrome's V8 engine. Like most major web browsers, Chrome uses
DNS prefetching to speed up website lookups, Safari, Internet Explorer (called DNS Pre-resolution), and in Opera as a UserScript (not built-in). Chrome formerly used their now-deprecated
SPDY protocol instead of only
HTTP when communicating with servers that support it, such as Google services, Facebook, and Twitter. SPDY support was removed in Chrome version 51. This was due to SPDY being replaced by
HTTP/2, a standard that was based upon it. In November 2019, Google said it was working on several "speed badging" systems that let visitors know why a page is taking time to show up. The variations include simple text warnings and more subtle signs that indicate a site is slow. No date has been given for when the badging system will be included with the Chrome browser. Chrome formerly supported a Data Saver feature for making pages load faster called Lite Mode. Previously, Chrome engineers Addy Osmani and Scott Little announced Lite Mode would automatically lazy-load images and iframes for faster page loads. Lite Mode was switched off in Chrome 100, citing a decrease in mobile data costs for many countries.
Security Chrome periodically retrieves updates of two
blacklists (one for
phishing and one for
malware), and warns users when they attempt to visit a site flagged as potentially harmful. This service is also made available for use by others via a free public API called "
Google Safe Browsing API". Using the
principle of least privilege, each tab process cannot interact with critical memory functions (e.g. OS memory, user files) or other tab processessimilar to Microsoft's "Protected Mode" used by
Internet Explorer 9 or greater. The
Sandbox Team is said to have "taken this existing process boundary and made it into a
jail". This enforces a
computer security model whereby there are two levels of
multilevel security (
user and
sandbox) and the
sandbox can only respond to communication requests initiated by the
user. On Linux sandboxing uses the
seccomp mode. In January 2015,
TorrentFreak reported that using Chrome when connected to the internet using a VPN can be a serious security issue due to the browser's support for
WebRTC. On September 9, 2016, it was reported that starting with Chrome 56, users will be warned when they visit insecure HTTP websites to encourage more sites to make the transition to HTTPS. On December 4, 2018, Google announced its Chrome 71 release with new security features, including a built-in ad-blocking system. In addition, Google also announced its plan to crack down on websites that make people involuntarily subscribe to mobile subscription plans. On September 2, 2020, with the release of Chrome 85, Google extended support for Secure DNS in Chrome for Android. DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) was designed to improve safety and privacy while browsing the web. Under the update, Chrome automatically switches to DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) if the current DNS provider supports the feature.
Password management Windows Since 2008, Chrome has been faulted for not including a master password to prevent casual access to a user's passwords. Chrome developers have indicated that a master password does not provide real security against determined hackers and have refused to implement one. Bugs filed on this issue have been marked "WontFix". Google Chrome asks the user to enter their Windows account password before showing saved passwords.
Linux On Linux, Google Chrome/Chromium can store passwords in three ways:
GNOME Keyring,
KWallet, or
plain text. Google Chrome/Chromium chooses which store to use automatically, based on the
desktop environment in use. Passwords stored in GNOME Keyring or KWallet are encrypted on disk, and access to them is controlled by dedicated daemon software. Passwords stored in plain text are not encrypted. Because of this, when either GNOME Keyring or KWallet is in use, any unencrypted passwords that have been stored previously are automatically moved into the encrypted store. Support for using GNOME Keyring and KWallet was added in version 6, but using these (when available) was not made the default mode until version 12.
macOS As of version 45, the Google Chrome password manager is no longer integrated with
Keychain, since the
interoperability goal is no longer possible.
Security vulnerabilities No security vulnerabilities in Chrome were exploited in the three years of
Pwn2Own from 2009 to 2011. At Pwn2Own 2012, Chrome was defeated by a
French team who used
zero-day exploits in the version of Flash shipped with Chrome to take complete control of a fully patched
64-bit Windows 7 PC using a booby-trapped website that overcame Chrome's sandboxing. Chrome was compromised twice at the 2012 CanSecWest
Pwnium. Google's official response to the exploits was delivered by Jason Kersey, who congratulated the researchers, noting "We also believe that both submissions are works of art and deserve wider sharing and recognition." Fixes for these vulnerabilities were deployed within 10 hours of the submission. A significant number of security vulnerabilities in Chrome occurred in the
Adobe Flash Player. For example, the 2016 Pwn2Own successful attack on Chrome relied on four security vulnerabilities. Two of the vulnerabilities were in Flash, one was in Chrome, and one was in the Windows kernel. In 2016, Google announced that it was planning to phase out Flash Player in Chrome, starting in version 53. The first phase of the plan was to disable Flash for ads and "background analytics", with the ultimate goal of disabling it completely by the end of the year, except on specific sites that Google has deemed to be broken without it. Flash would then be re-enabled with the exclusion of ads and background analytics on a site-by-site basis. Leaked documents from 2013 to 2016 codenamed
Vault 7 detail the capabilities of the United States
Central Intelligence Agency, such as the ability to compromise web browsers (including Google Chrome).
Malware blocking and ad blocking Google introduced download scanning protection in Chrome 17. In February 2018, Google introduced an ad blocking feature based on recommendations from the
Interactive Advertising Bureau. Sites that employ invasive ads are given a 30-day warning, after which their ads will be blocked.
Consumer Reports recommended users install dedicated ad-blocking tools instead, which offer increased security against malware and tracking.
Plugins • Chrome supported, up to version 45,
plug-ins with the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (
NPAPI), so that plug-ins (for example
Adobe Flash Player) run as unrestricted separate processes outside the browser and cannot be sandboxed as tabs are.
ActiveX is not supported.
Java applet support was available in Chrome with Java 6 update 12 and above. Support for Java under macOS was provided by a Java Update released on May 18, 2010. • On August 12, 2009, Google introduced a replacement for
NPAPI that is more portable and more secure called Pepper Plugin API (
PPAPI). The default bundled PPAPI Flash Player (or Pepper-based Flash Player) was available on
ChromeOS first, then replaced the NPAPI Flash Player on Linux from Chrome version 20, on Windows from version 21 (which also reduced Flash crashes by 20%), and eventually came to macOS at version 23. NPAPI plugins like Java can no longer work in Chrome (but there are workarounds for Flash by using PPAPI Flash Player on Linux including for Chromium). • On April 14, 2015, Google released Chrome v42, disabling the NPAPI by default. This makes plugins that do not have a PPAPI plugin counterpart incompatible with Chrome, such as
Java,
Silverlight, and
Unity. However, NPAPI support could be enabled through the chrome://flags menu until the release of version 45 on September 1, 2015, which removed NPAPI support entirely.
Privacy Do Not Track In February 2012, Google announced that Chrome would implement the
Do Not Track (DNT) standard to inform websites of the user's desire not to be tracked. The protocol was implemented in version 23. In line with the W3's draft standard for DNT, it is turned off by default in Chrome.
Privacy benchmarks A study from 2020 depicts that there are two tiers of browsers in terms of privacy: the privacy-focused ones (
Brave,
DuckDuckGo and
Firefox-Focus) perform better than popular ones (Chrome,
Firefox, and
Safari). It was shown that Chrome collects 20 types of data (
fingerprinting, cookies,
tracking scripts, browser history, purchase history, ads, etc) as compared with 6 of the average competitor — which seems to explain that difference in the benchmark.
Incognito mode The
private browsing feature called
Incognito mode prevents the browser from locally storing any
history information,
cookies, site data, or form inputs. Downloaded files and bookmarks will be stored. In addition, user activity is not hidden from visited websites or the Internet service provider. Incognito mode is similar to the private browsing feature in other web browsers. The iOS version of Chrome also supports the optional ability to lock incognito tabs with Face ID, Touch ID, or the device's passcode. In 2022, Google began to implement this feature into Android versions of Chrome. From 2023, this feature is available for
Android 12 devices and above, when the hardware allows it. In 2024, Google agreed to destroy billions of records to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of people who thought they were browsing privately in incognito mode.
Stability A multi-process architecture is implemented in Chrome where, by default, a separate process is allocated to each site instance and plugin. This procedure is termed
process isolation, and raises security and stability by preventing tasks from interfering with each other. An attacker successfully gaining access to one application gains access to no others, and failure in one instance results in a
Sad Tab screen of death, similar to the well-known
Sad Mac, but only one tab crashes instead of the whole application. This strategy exacts a fixed per-process cost up front, but results in less memory bloat over time as fragmentation is confined to each instance and no longer needs further memory allocations. and Firefox. Chrome includes a
process management utility called
Task Manager which lets users see what sites and plugins are using the most
memory,
downloading the most
bytes, and overusing the
CPU and provides the ability to terminate them. Chrome Version 23 ensures its users an improved battery life for the systems supporting Chrome's GPU accelerated video decoding. On July 22, 2010, Google announced it would ramp up the speed at which it releases new stable versions; the release cycles were shortened from quarterly to six weeks for major Stable updates. Beta channel releases now come roughly at the same rate as Stable releases, though approximately one month in advance, while Dev channel releases appear roughly once or twice weekly, allowing time for basic release-critical testing. This faster release cycle also brought a fourth channel: the "Canary" channel, updated daily from a build produced at 09:00 UTC from the most stable of the last 40
revisions. The name refers to the practice of
using canaries in coal mines, so if a change "kills" Chrome Canary, it will be blocked from migrating down to the Developer channel, at least until fixed in a subsequent Canary build. Canary is "the most bleeding-edge official version of Chrome and somewhat of a mix between Chrome dev and the Chromium snapshot builds". Canary releases run side by side with any other channel; it is not linked to the other Google Chrome installation and can therefore run different synchronization profiles, themes, and browser preferences. This ensures that fallback functionality remains even when some Canary updates may contain release-breaking bugs. It does not natively include the option to be the default browser, although on Windows and macOS it can be set through System Preferences. Canary was Windows-only at first; a macOS version was released on May 3, 2011. The Chrome beta channel for Android was launched on January 10, 2013; like Canary, it runs side by side with the stable channel for Android. Chrome Dev for Android was launched on April 29, 2015. All Chrome channels are automatically distributed according to their respective release cycles. The mechanism differs by platform. On Windows, it uses Google Update, and auto-update can be controlled via
Group Policy. Alternatively, users may download a standalone installer of a version of Chrome that does not auto-update. On macOS, it uses Google Update Service, and auto-update can be controlled via the macOS "defaults" system. On Linux, it lets the system's normal
package management system supply the updates. This auto-updating behavior is a key difference from Chromium, the non-branded
open-source browser which forms the core of Google Chrome. Because Chromium also serves as the
pre-release development trunk for Chrome, its revisions are provided as source code, and buildable snapshots are produced continuously with each new
commit, requiring users to manage their own browser updates. In March 2021, Google announced that starting with Chrome 94 in the third quarter of 2021, Google Chrome Stable releases will be made every four weeks, instead of six weeks as they have been since 2010. Also, Google announced a new release channel for system administrators and browser embedders with releases every eight weeks.
Release version numbers Releases are identified by a four-part version number, e.g., 42.0.2311.90 (Windows Stable release April 14, 2015 :
Major.minor reflects scheduling policy :
Build.patch identifies content progression •
Major represents a product release. These are scheduled 7–8 per year, unlike other software systems where the
major version number updates only with substantial new content. •
Minor is usually 0. References to version 'x' or 'x.0', e.g., 42.0, refer to this
major.minor designation. •
Build is ever-increasing. For a release cycle, e.g., 42.0, there are several builds in the Canary and Developer periods. The last
build number from Developer is kept throughout Beta and Stable and is locked with the
major.minor for that release. •
Patch resets with each
build, incrementing with each
patch. The first
patch is 0, but usually the first publicly released
patch is somewhat higher. In Beta and Stable, only
patch increments. Chromium and Chrome release schedules are linked through Chromium (
Major) version
Branch Point dates, published annually. Example: The version 42 Branch Point was February 20, 2015. 4 days later. The first Stable release, 42.0.2311.90, was April 14, 2015, 53 days after the Branch Point.
Color management Chrome supports
color management by using the system-provided ICC v2 and v4 support on macOS, and from version 22 supports ICC v2 profiles by default on other platforms. The game itself is an
infinite runner, and there is no time limit in the game as it progresses faster and periodically tints to a black background. A school or enterprise manager can disable the game. ==Platforms==