Google is launching a couple of new widgets for the Chrome app and making the Journeys function official on the desktop which allows you to revisit past navigations by grouping them by topic.
New widgets for the Google Chrome app
The new 4 × 1 widget offers a “Search” field that immediately opens the Google Chrome Omnibox to quickly enter a URL or a search. There is no shortage of a microphone to start a voice search, the ability to open an incognito navigation tab, Google Lens and even the offline Dino mini-game.
As you increase the height of the widget, the search box fills the top row and the shortcut row moves down. This widget can have a light or dark background, but it does not support the dynamic colors of the Material You design.
The widgets are being implemented with the 98 version of Google Chrome, however it is possible to activate them immediately by enabling the following flags:
- chrome: // flags / # enable-quick-action-search-widget-android
- chrome: // flags / # enable-quick-action-search-widget-android-dino-variant
Chrome Journeys
After debuting as an experiment in October, Chrome Journeys is now available on desktop in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Turkish. The feature automatically groups visited sites and searches by topic, allowing users to easily pick up where they left off.
For example, if the user enters a search already carried out previously, Omnibar will ask if they want to resume it taking into account how much they interacted with a site in order to put the most relevant information in the foreground and in the center and also providing useful suggestions on searches. related.
You can delete any grouping, particular elements, or completely disable the functionality from the Chrome settings, furthermore, Google only syncs the history to the local device and not to the cloud, however, the latter option may be introduced in the future based on user feedback.
Meanwhile, Google has added new Chrome actions that can be entered into the address bar to quickly open settings and access other parts of the desktop browser. Soon the following actions will support more languages and will also land on mobile devices:
- “Manage settings”
- “Customize Chrome”
- “View Chrome History”
- “Manage accessibility settings”
- “Share this sheet”
- “Play Chrome Dino”