Even the most obscure ones
Abstract
- Google’s move to Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) has seen a surge in installs among Chrome users.
- Chrome Canary now allows users to easily install websites as desktop apps for a more seamless experience.
- To enable the new “Install Page as an App” feature in Chrome Canary, users can simply install Canary and enable certain tags.
Seven years ago, Google announced that it would be phasing out all Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux by 2018 (it would actually take until 2023). In its place would be what the company called Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), web applications that can be installed on a user’s desktop and act as if they were virtually native apps and programs. The idea grew rapidly, and Chrome users installed PWAs in record numbers by early 2022. Soon, every website will be able to be installed on desktops via PWAs.
In Chrome Canary (the daily version of Google Chrome and usually a few versions before the stable version), websites can now be installed on desktop computers. As part of the latest daily build, Google has added an “Install page as an app…” option to the “Save & Share” submenu on the desktop version (via @Leopeva64 on X). Because of this, clicking on the app — which is just a website made to look and feel like a native app — always opens in its own window. Sites that already have their own PWAs, like YouTube or Reddit, have been encouraging users to install them for some time and will have an “Install Page as App…” function that will actually display the name of the site. For example, YouTube’s entry will show as “Install YouTube”.
In February, it became possible to enable the flags needed to convert any website into a PWA, but it appears that it has only now been fully implemented. To enable this feature in Chrome Canary now and test it, simply install Canary and enable both flags below:
chrome://flags/#web-app-universal-install
chrome://flags/#shortcuts-not-apps
Canary currently uses an early version of Chrome 124. Chrome’s stable version is 122, which was released in February and introduced AI writing tools and a read-aloud tool on Android. Chrome 123 will be released in a stable version soon (it’s currently in beta) and will add an integrated PDF reader on Android, an Android-style media player on desktops and laptops, and tons of options for sharing groups of tabs.