The latest incarnation of the Chrome browser (version 60) has been released, and it comes with official support for the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar.
Earlier this year Google’s browser offered rudimentary support for the Touch Bar in its Canary build (effectively the alpha version), but full support has taken its time in arriving. We were expecting it to debut in April, but it’s only just made the cut for July.
At any rate, support for the Touch Bar is now in the full release version of Chrome, giving you convenient access to the expected navigation buttons (back, forwards, refresh), a URL/search bar, the ability to bookmark a website and more.
Custom corner
Furthermore, it’s possible to customize the Touch Bar to add or remove buttons, and you also get the ability to turn off predictive typing suggestions if that functionality annoys you. As Mac Rumors points out, you’ll find the settings for customization under 'View', then select 'Customize Touch Bar'.
Another major app supporting the MacBook Pro’s context-sensitive strip is obviously a welcome boon, and Chrome joins some big names in this club including Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and Evernote.
Chrome version 60 also tightens up a lot of bits and pieces on the security front with various fixes being applied, which is always good to hear. Google’s browser is very well thought of in terms of security – it was the undisputed champion of web browsers at Pwn2Own back in the spring, managing to avoid being hacked in any way. That’s an impressive achievement indeed.
As a final note, those who don't care about the Touch Bar because they own an older MacBook Pro might be interested to read our story from yesterday, whereby Apple is swapping certain old models with battery issues for newer notebooks.
- For a truly touch-based browsing experience, see the best 2-in-1 laptops
