Chrome 28 adds ability for apps, extensions

PanARMENIAN.Net - The latest release of the Chrome browser is out, adding the ability for apps and extensions to bring up rich pop-up notifications, ZDNet reports.

Chrome already supports pop-up notifications, but the update allows notifications to contain richer content than previously possible. Support has been added for lists and images in notifications, as well as allowing users to interact with the messages, for example allowing them to reply to an email in a notification.

Notifications now sit in the Notification Center software outside the browser, which allows users to receive notifications when the browser is closed, ZDNet says.

The release adds rich notifications and the notification center to Chrome running on the Windows OS. These notifications are already present in the Chrome OS browser and Google promises they will be added to Linux and Mac OS soon.

Developers who want to learn how to start using rich notifications with their app or extension can check Google's rich notification test app and documentation.

Rich notifications could be used by developers to, for example, to allow a mail app to display a list of unread emails or offer thumbnail image previews, Google has previously said.

Chrome 28 is also the first stable release of the browser to use Blink, the new rendering engine and fork of the WebKit engine that was previously used by Chrome. Google cited the need to be free to add features and make security fixes without being held back by having to ensure compatibility with WebKit as driving the decision to make the switch.

The release also introduces a round of bug fixes, and a new version of the V8 JavaScript engine.

Chrome for Linux is already on version 28, having been updated on June 17.