Google on Tuesday released Chrome 78 (build 78.0.3904.70) to the stable channel for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS and ChromeOS with a number of new features, including a new Password Checkup tool and new customization options for the New Tab page. However, the biggest new improvement from the end-user point-of-view has to be the ‘Force Dark Mode’ option that will bring the much-wanted dark theme to every site, irrespective of whether they support it natively or not.
Do note that while some of the new features are enabled by default, others will need to be activated manually by accessing the chrome://flags section. First off, to enable Forced Dark Mode, users should enable the following Chrome flag: chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark. To enable the new customization options, users will have to enable two Chrome flags: chrome://flags/#ntp-customization-menu-v2 and chrome://flags/#chrome-colors.
The Password checkup tool is also not enabled by default, which means users wanting to use it will need to activate it via chrome://flags/#password-leak-detection. Chrome 78 also provides tooltips when hovering over nearby tabs, but some may find these tab hover cards more annoying than useful, and if so, can be disabled via Chrome flags as well: chrome://flags/#tab-hover-cards.
Chrome 78 also removes the legacy XSS Auditor security feature that was originally included in Chrome 4 back in 2009. While it helped prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, it had become a highly inefficient remnant of legacy web standards, which is why Chrome developers decided to get rid of it for good. Another new feature is the new DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) protocol, which disguises DNS queries and responses inside regular HTTPS traffic.
