Chrome 106 Is Now Available With Some New Features

Laiba MohsinLast Updated: Sep 28, 2022

Google Chrome 105 rolled out almost four weeks back. So, now it is time for the availability of the next major version of the Chrome browser. The fact is that Chrome 106 isn’t as significant of an update as its predecessors in terms of new APIs and functionalities, however, it still packs a few interesting features. It is available for download now.

Here Is What’s New In Chrome 106

Some new features that have been brought with this update are mentioned down below:

Translate Highlighted Text

All Chrome users know that Google Translate built-in feature is very handy. Previously, it was only possible to right-click anywhere on a webpage and click “Translate to English.” Now, the latest version adds the ability to highlight text and see the same option. You can simply highlight the text on a page that you want to translate, right-click the text, then choose “Translate to English” from the menu. In addition to that, this feature can be enabled through a Chrome flag at: chrome://flags#desktop-partial-translate

Desktop Chrome Gets the RSS Reader

Chrome for Android and iOS received a built-in “RSS reader” back in 2021 in the form of “Follow” buttons on websites. The good part is that the feature is making its way to the desktop in version 106.

The point worth mentioning here is that the feature doesn’t appear to be ready for prime time yet. If a website doesn’t have RSS, Google finds new content and pushes it to the sidebar anyway.

Web Apps Get New UI Elements

Chrome version 106 has some goodies in store as well. A new “Pop-Up API” has made it possible for web apps to have temporary UI elements that can display on top of other elements. These elements include:

action menus
form element suggestions
content pickers
teaching user interfaces

What Else Is New?

Chrome 106 has several features that aren’t quite ready yet. However, there’s a lot happening under the surface. We came to know about them from Google’s developer site as well as on the Chromium blog. Let’s jot them down:

Anonymous iframes will give developers a way to load documents in third-party iframes using new and ephemeral contexts.
Client Hints will be now persisted on Android WebView, creating parity with the rest of the web platform.
In CSS Grid, the 'grid-template-columns' and 'grid-template-rows' properties will allow developers to define line names and track the sizing of grid columns and rows, respectively.
The underlying data source ReadableStream provided by a SerialPort will be now a readable byte stream.
Apps using the WebXR Device API will now access pose-synchronized camera image textures in contexts that also allow interaction with other AR features provided by WebXR.

How to Update Google Chrome?

Chrome automatically installs the update on your device when it’s available. However, in order to immediately check for and install any available updates: