If you now visit a Website in Chrome browser in Canary, the browser checks the site and if it is a Progressive Web App site, Chrome shows an option to install PWA in the Omnibox. In case you don’t know, till now Chrome has provided that option in the menu, now with this, the PWA install option will be visible to users in the Omnibox.
Yesterday, we’ve covered Chrome will show intent Picker to the user in the browser if the site URL you visit can be opened in the PWA, now this article is also related to PWA. Till now Chromium team offered a flag -“Desktop PWAs installable from Omnibox” – in Canary which when enabled and if the site you visit passes PWA installation requirements, it shows a button in the Omnibox for the user to install that app.
Install PWAs from Omnibox in Chrome
Today, a few hours back, Google has made a commit for the Surface PWA installation in the Omnibox issue to enable the flag by default and as a result, from now on whenever you visit any PWA site, Chrome automatically shows + icon near bookmark star icon to say it is a Progressive Web App site and its app can be installed in browser. The feature has been targeted for Chrome 75 and it’s priority set to 1.
To test the feature right now
1. Download and install the latest Chrome Canary on your computer
2. Visit a PWA site, such as killer-marmot.appspot.com, mobile.twitter.com, thesession.org
3. + icon with install label will flash in the address bar
4. Clicking on it will show a dialog to install the App with “Install” and “Cancel” options, clicking the former will install the PWA.
PWAs installed in Chrome browser can be seen at chrome://apps page and any app can be removed by selecting the option provided in its context menu.
