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Google Chrome Will Soon Let You Install Any Website as a Desktop App

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Apr 12, 2001
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Google Chrome will soon let you install any webpage as a desktop app on your Mac, just like Apple's Safari browser does in macOS Sonoma (via Android Police).

Chrome-Feature-22.jpg

The new feature was spotted by X (Twitter) user Leopeva64 in the latest Chrome Canary build, which includes a new option called "Install page as app," which can be found in Settings ➝ Save and share. Websites such as YouTube and Reddit which already have their own web apps will also automatically appear as optional installs in this menu.

Selecting the "Install page as app" option invokes a prompt to "Install app," as shown in the image below. Web apps are automatically saved in an Applications subfolder called Chrome Canary Apps, where they can be optionally dragged to the Dock in macOS.

chrome-web-apps.jpg

Currently, Chrome's implementation of web apps is more sophisticated than Safari's, as it provides not only a simplified toolbar with navigation buttons, but also a pared down settings menu with options including Copy URL, Open in Chrome, Uninstall, Zoom, Print, Find and Edit, and Cast.
The feature is thanks to Chrome's long-standing support for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), which Google originally embraced as a replacement for Chrome apps on the Google Play store.

chrome-web-app-2.jpg

Users can try out the feature before it goes live in the stable build of Chrome by downloading the latest Canary 124 update and enabling two new flags. To do so, copy and paste the following links into the address bar:
  • chrome://flags/#web-app-universal-install
  • chrome://flags/#shortcuts-not-apps
Chrome 123 is currently in beta and is expected to be released to the public imminently, so PWA support for webpages won't be in the upcoming version, but the next stable build after that.

Article Link: Google Chrome Will Soon Let You Install Any Website as a Desktop App
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/03/08/google-chrome-desktop-web-apps/
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When I woke up this morning, I thought to myself "you know what would fill the great emotional void in my life? MORE Google Chrome." And like some demented, ad-serving, data-hoarding Santa Claus, Google provided everything I could have asked for and more today.

Now, every time I see the web apps cluttering my desktop, I can feel the existential crisis being pushed further away. Thank you, Google! 🥰
 
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Reactions: Victor Mortimer, zapmymac, kevpnw and 26 others
Great! Although I’ll keep avoiding Google as a search engine and Chrome as a browser as long as I can. But for those who do use them, this is great news!

On the other hand, I wish more websites and services would support PWA (especially on iOS), such as Discord or Outlook. Currently the only web app I have on my iPhone is MacRumors Forum.
 
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People still use Chrome?

EDIT: Why are people butthurt for me making fun of Chrome? It's a terrible browser and there's plenty of reason enterprise is moving to Edge (which everyone knows is built on Chromium so don't come at that angle).

Chrome is a classic example of something Google made and then stopped caring about. For YEARS Chrome couldn't even detect a simple password change and would constantly try and fill in an old password on all the computers I and my coworkers were forced to use it on. That's a shameful bug to have.
 
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It's still unclear after reading the article. What's the difference between this upcoming thing and the current "install" option, which we've had for a long time? Will it have separate storage and cookies like in Safari, whereas right now there isn't? But then the article says "currently" Chrome's implementation is more sophisticated than Safari. Note that in Chrome "install" and "create shortcut" are already two different things under the three-dot menu. So what's this upcoming change?
 
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I actually would like this on my iPad. My job uses a database that can only be accessed through Chrome (annoyingly) so this would be nice if it ever comes that way.
 
I feel like we've had this for years. It would be nice if the article described the current state and then clearly described what exactly is changing and the benefits.

As it stands, it just seems like the author just found out that Chrome has done for years what Safari just began doing.
 
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So how is this different than the current PWA setup on Macs and Chrome? I've used it for Hulu, Netflix, SiriusXM, etc for a long time and the PWAs work fantastic, can reside in my dock, etc.
 
tomtad said:
This is how desktop apps die
Click to expand...
Some desktop apps are already just a web app running in Chrome. Discord is one example.

I stopped using the Discord app and started using it through Safari or Firefox. I’d argue it has actually been a better experience than dealing with their app. The app would randomly spend minutes updating on whatever slow coffee shop WiFi I happened to be on before I could even use it.
 
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