Google tests horizontal tab switcher for its Chrome app on Android

One of the biggest changes Google is implementing in Android P is the horizontal orientation of the recent apps switcher. It seems this design change is making its way to the Chrome app on Android, too. The latest update to Chrome Canary (the unstable version of Chrome) shows a horizontal tab switcher, letting you see more of the page as you swipe left or right. You can close tabs by swiping up and down.

One of the other new things in Chrome includes how you interact with Incognito tabs. You can tap on the incognito icon in the upper right corner to open all of them. If you want to switch back, you just need to tap the icon again. If you want to try this out before the official Chrome app gets it, you’ll need to install the Chrome Canary app from Google Play and then bring out the flags by typing chrome://flags in the search box, find the #enable-horizontal-tab-switcher and then enable it.

Source: GSMArena

Google Chrome will soon let you mute websites

We’re confident it’s happened to you before. You have multiple tabs open in Chrome and then a page loads and you suddenly get assaulted by really loud music. And if this has annoyed you to no end, Google is working on something to make sure you don’t have to hear autoplaying videos in the background anymore. The company is testing out in their experimental Canary build for the browser a way to permanently mute websites. But as Google’s François Beaufort says, they are still “experimenting with a setting to mute / unmute a website directly from the Page Info bubble.”

Right now you can already mute tabs by just right clicking on them and selecting “Mute tab” but this is a temporary fix because the sound will start playing again the next time you open the tab or Chrome.

Source: The Verge

Google Now lands on your desktop through Chrome Canary

Google has finally unveiled the Google Now personal assistant service on the desktop through the experimental version of the desktop browser Chrome Canary. Users can access the service by enabling the correct flag (chrome://flags/#enable-google-now) and then relaunching the browser. You will then receive a notice on the Windows system tray or Mac Notification Center once the service has been successfully integrated.

According to the support page, you can see weather, current traffic for commuting, event reminders, and sport scores cards. The other cards like public alerts and nearby photo spots will hopefully be integrated into the desktop version in the future.

Source: The Next Web