Chrome 155 for Googlebook brings expanded web app facilities and integration

With Chrome 155, Googlebooks now better supports web apps by enabling expanded installation and system integration.

Previously, Chrome on Googlebooks (which is the Android version with desktop features) “only enabled the install option for websites specifically configured as web apps.” As seen above, the “no installable web manifest” pages just opened as a browser tab.

Google reiterates today that this was a “conscious design choice,” but it has heard feedback from the community.

Chrome 155 this week lets you “manually install any web page as an app directly from the Chrome browser so that it functions as an app in its own window.” To do this:

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1. On your Googlebook, open Chromium.
2. Navigate to a website you want to install.
3. At the top right, open the Chrome menu > Save and share > Install and create a shortcut…
   • On some websites, at the top right of the address bar, select Install.
4. Select Install.
5. To complete the installation of the web application, follow the on-screen instructions.

Additionally, Google says: “If you already created a browser tab shortcut for a website before this update, first delete the old shortcut and reinstall the page using the steps above. »

Meanwhile, installed web apps that appear in the app launcher can now be “pinned to your taskbar or home screen and run in Chrome.” They will benefit from “shared Google account login, cookies, site permissions and installed browser extensions”.

With this release, Chrome Settings is no longer a full-screen interface, as it was on mobile platforms but not on desktop platforms. As a separate tab, “you can more easily reference a web page while changing settings.”

Chrome version 155.0.8059.79 is rolling out via the Play Store to Googlebooks. We see it on all our devices.