Google on Tuesday released version Chrome 78 (build 78.0.3904.70) its stable version for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS and ChromeOS.
It did so with a number of new features, including a new password verification tool and new customization options for the New Tab page.
However, the main improvement from the end user's point of view is probably the "Force dark mode" option, which will bring the desired dark mode to every web page, regardless of whether they natively support it or not.
How to enable new Google Chrome features
For this, we must be sure that we have the Chrome 78 version installed. We can see it in:
- The upper right part of the browser, in the 3 dots vertically.
- We press it and below the menu that is displayed, we go to HELP.
- In the displayed submenu, click on about Google Chrome.
- There we will see what version we have and if there is a new one available, it will be downloaded “automagically” and Chrome will be updated.
- After knowing that we have Chrome 78, we follow the steps below.
Enable dark mode in Chrome 78
Please note that while some of the new features are enabled by default, others will need to be turned on manually. We will have to write the following in the Chrome address bar, or better a copy / paste:
chrome://flags
There we search among the hundreds of flags, the dark mode.
First of all, to enable forced dark mode, users need to enable the following Chrome flag:
chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark
To enable the new customization options, users will need to enable two Chrome options:
chrome://flags/#ntp-customization-menu-v2 y chrome://flags/#chrome-colors.
The password verification tool is also not enabled by default, which means that users who want to use it will have to activate it via:
chrome://flags/#password-leak-detection
Chrome 78 also provides tooltips, when hovering over nearby tabs. But some may find these tab scrolling cards more annoying than helpful.
If this is your case, they can also be disabled through the Chrome flags:
chrome://flags/#tab-hover-cards
Chrome 78 also removes the legacy XSS Auditor security feature, which was originally included in Chrome 4 in 2009. S
While it helped prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, it had become a rather inefficient relic of legacy web standards, so Chrome developers decided to get rid of it for good.
Another new feature is the new DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) protocol, which hides DNS queries and responses within regular HTTPS traffic.
Do you already have Chrome 78? Have you been able to activate the dark mode in Chrome, forced web mode? Time to leave a comment, below.