Everyone who uses Chrome apps, the most famous and used web browser in the world, time has counted. Yes, because according to what is read on the official Chromium Google blog, support for Chrome applications will be completely eliminated and therefore users will no longer be able to use them.
Chrome App: that's when they can no longer be used
For those who are not aware of what they are Chrome Apps, know that they are nothing but all those applications made specifically for Chrome. They were launched in 2013 and in fact they had to be real applications that can be used as a normal web browser tab. Moreover, they were easy to develop and above all immediately compatible with Chrome in any operating system. Too bad they didn't have the success they deserved since very few have been published and that users, perhaps, were not even aware of it.
Their decline has therefore been decidedly fast with Google ready to remove them already in 2016 from the suop Web Store and then announced their definitive closure and elimination in 2018. If it were not that Google itself decided to postpone everything with the announcement to close the support definitively in June 2022 but with a specific sequence of gradual steps starting from March 2020.
Here are the steps:
- March 2020: new applications will no longer be accepted but existing ones can be updated
- June 2020: end of support for Chrome applications in version “Home", While the versions"Business”Like Chrome Enterprise and Chrome Education will be supported until December 2020
- December 2020: end of support on Windows, Mac and Linux
- June 2021: end of API support but also end of support on Chrome OS- Extension only for Chrome Enterprise and Chrome Education until June 2022
- June 2022: end of support for all applications
Google therefore decides to eliminate yet another service who never found a real reason to exist. The idea was decidedly good but the use of applications never reached important levels. Indeed, in recent years, codes and technologies have been created that have put the apps themselves back in development. This is therefore the reason that led Google to eliminate them by 2022 permanently. And I believe that few will regret them.