Google unveils Chrome 59 with Material Design, native macOS notifications & more

In a complete revamp of the platform, Google has released a new version of the Chrome browser- Chrome 59. Rolling out to Mac, Windows, and Linux, Chrome 59 delivers some developer-focused features and security improvements.

The new version of Google’s browser offering uses Material Design; an internal UI developed three years back by the company as a universal design language for all of its official apps. Notably, Chrome was the only Google product not to feature a Material Design-inspired UI. It has already made its way into Android, Gmail, Google Search, AdSense, and most of the company's best-selling products.

Also, Chrome 59 now provides support for animated PNG format and access to native macOS notifications. This means that when developers send notifications via the Notifications API or chrome.notifications, they will be shown directly by the macOS native notification system.

Without much changes, Chrome 59 has also updated the Settings window. Now it comes with a navigation drawer, which provides quick access to various categories within the configuration window. The About page has also been redesigned with a Material touch in the update.

Google is also adding support for Image Capture API. Ditching the old way of switching between the camera and the browser to upload high-resolution photos, developers now get full control over camera settings such as zoom, ISO, and white balance.

The company has also introduced Headless Chrome, a command line mode. This feature allows running Chrome in an automated environment without a user interface or peripherals. This updated browser will come in handy for Selenium users who’re testing out their progressive web app and converting it into a PDF.

Along with several other minor upgrades, Chrome 59 brings 30 security fixes, 16 of which were reported by third-party researchers. Google paid bug reporters $23,500 in this update. The highest bug bounty of $7,500 went to a Qihoo 360 Vulcan Team researcher for the confusion error in Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine.

Chrome 59 for desktop is now available, with updates for Android and Chrome OS coming soon.