The New Version of Chrome will Feature; Not Secure Warnings, Web Bluetooth and CSS Position: ‘Sticky’

Nathan Ernest Olupot December 13, 2016

1 minute read

Last year, tech-search giants; Google Corp. started giving preference to the HTTPS pages over HTTP and then announced that the Web crawler will start searching for HTTPS versions of HTTP pages. New reports according to Gadgets 360 state that, the company announced; starting with Chrome v.56, the browser will provide warning to the users in a more active way about entering sensitive information on non-secure sites.

“Starting with v.56 of the browser, Chrome will mark HTTP pages that collect passwords or credit cards as non-secure, as part of a long-term plan to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure,” the company said in a blog.

Web Bluetooth

Aside from the HTTP warnings, Chrome 56 beta brings along support for Web Bluetooth; where sites can now interact with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices using the Web Bluetooth API on Android, Chrome OS, and Mac.

The Web Bluetooth API uses the GATT protocol, which enables web developers to connect to bluetooth devices such as printers and LED displays with just a few lines of JavaScript.[related-posts]

CSS Position: sticky

The beta build of Chrome 56 comes along with support for CSS “position: sticky” command that allows the web page titles to stick to the top of the screen when user scrolls down.

Previously, building content headers that scrolled normally until sticking to the top of the viewport required listening to scroll events and switching an element’s position from relative to fixed at a specified threshold. This solution was difficult to synchronize, resulting in small visual jumps. Now, users can achieve the desired effect by simply positioning their elements as sticky. Image Credit: Google

The features mentioned above are a part of the beta release of Chrome 56, which is already available for download on Android, Chrome OS, Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Other features in this release

The new Remote Playback API on Android which will enable sites to initiate and control playback of an HTML Media Element on smart TVs and speakers.
The WebVR API is available on Android as an origin trial, allowing developers to create virtual reality experiences on the web.
Support for Adobe Flash will no longer be advertised if the user has not substantially interacted with a site, though users can re-enable Flash experiences on a per-site basis.
The Notifications API will now allow sites to include an image in notifications by setting the image property.
Showing and hiding the URL bar on mobile no longer resizes the initial containing block.

source: Google Blog and Gadgets 360 News