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User Navigation Capturing on Desktop

Category
Capabilities (Fugu)
Type
New or changed feature
Status
In developer trial (Behind a flag) (Chrome 134)
Intent stage
None

Summary

Web links now direct users to installed web apps. This aligns with users' installed app expectations. Chrome makes it easier to move between the browser and installed web apps. Clicking a link that could be handled by an installed web app with the launch_handler field specified, the link will open in that installed web app, following the launch handling behavior. Users can change this behavior through the installed web app's settings. Developers can control this behavior via the launch_handler manifest property. For more information, please refer to https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSqYzAmiLr-58OgSWBITtAAu6_2XUpjjNEdMvc6IdZn9DjQCeVrE0SKViumyly0cpryxAONMq62zwHw/pub, or watch https://youtu.be/OFH9TfrqZCY

Motivation

Users expect that links to installed experiences will open in that installed experience. This is the case for native apps on all platforms and installed web apps on Android. There is a slightly broken disabled-by-default version of this on ChromeOS. This functionality has not yet been implemented on Windows, Mac, or Linux for installed web applications.

Standards & signals

Docs: https://bit.ly/pwa-navigation-capturing https://bit.ly/pwa-navigation-capturing-pres https://youtu.be/OFH9TfrqZCY https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSqYzAmiLr-58OgSWBITtAAu6_2XUpjjNEdMvc6IdZn9DjQCeVrE0SKViumyly0cpryxAONMq62zwHw/pub

Samples: https://googlechrome.github.io/samples/pwa-testing/chat-app-deep-linking https://googlechrome.github.io/samples/pwa-testing/fake-chat-app-companion

View on chromestatus.com