Google released Chrome 88 for all desktop users, which introduces security enhancements and permanently removes Adobe Flash Player . At the same time as the release of the new version on the stable channel, Chrome 89 switched to the Beta and Chrome channel 90 will enter the Canary channel. The update is performed on reboot after the download (automatic), and can be forced through the browser settings.

Chrome 88, the new features

The main new feature of Chrome 88 is the removal of Adobe Flash Player , whose support was terminated by the parent company on 12 January 2021. It is from 2017 that Google has warned about the removal of Flash Player from the browser, suggesting companies to find a alternative to Adobe’s technology for its websites and web services. Starting with Chrome 88 it will no longer be possible to enable Flash Player in any way, not even through the Enterprise policies (as was the case up to Chrome 87). With the novelty, the largest web browsing platform says goodbye to technology.

Google also removed support for the FTP protocol (ftp: // ) due to its low use and lack of support for encrypted connections (FTPS) or proxies. This is something that Google has been trying to do for years, given that FTP was only used by 0.1 or 0.2% of Chrome users. With Chrome 80 the company started deprecating the protocol with the adding a specific flag to enable or disable it, while with Chrome 81 technology it was disabled by default (only to be re-enabled during the pandemic to guarantee access to FTP services). With Chrome 88, however, FTP support has been completely removed from the browser.

The new version of the Google browser has also introduced news on dark mode , such as scrollbars and form controls which now also render in dark mode. The new tabs are now opened with the “noopener” command, a security measure used to avoid Tabnapping attacks . These occur when a new tab at the opening can execute javascript to redirect the desired page to a new different URL, which can lead to various types of threats (phishing or pages that automatically download malicious files). Developers could add the attribute rel = “noopener” to their web pages, however now Google applies the attribute to all links opened on a new tab.

Chrome 88, the new experimental features

Among the novelties we will also have some introduced on an experimental basis. Among these the new flag chrome: // flags / # enable- tab-search which enables the possibility to perform a search unique on all tabs running on the browser. It can be enabled by all users and, when activated, can be called up through a small icon to the right of the open tabs in the form of an arrow down. Interacting with it will open a dialog box through which to perform the search.

For all the news for developers, however, we refer you to the official website. At the time of writing, Google has not yet published the list of security fixes.