After the bigChrome 117release this week that rolls out Google’s Material You redesign to desktop computers across the world, Chrome 118 has launched in early stable. Compared to the big interface tweak coming with the version before it, Chrome 118 is looking a lot lighter on new features and tweaks. Nevertheless, here’s the rundown of what’s new in thelatest Chrome release.
Chrome 118 adds support for passkeys in iCloud Keychain
For those deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem but that still prefer to use Chrome, the latest tweak could be interesting. Chrome 118 is adding support for passkeys stored in your iCloud Keychain. If you use iCloud to sync all your login credentials, Chrome 118 will also be able to use passkeys stored to it rather than just passwords and usernames. If you’re not familiar, passkeys are basically a revamped take on passwords that are more secure, a lot less prone to phishing, and, in theory, don’t require you to ever enter a password by hand again.
Apple’s iCloud Keychain could appear alongside other options, like in this sample here
In practice, you will have to grant permission to Chrome on macOS 13.5 or higher to access iCloud Keychain passkeys. These passkeys will then be listed as login options. If you don’t grant permission, you will only see a generic iCloud Keychain option when logging in, and you have to manually select the option each time. Chrome will intelligently choose where and how to create passkeys in the Keychain based on what you’ve recently used and if you have other passkeys stored elsewhere.
Passkeys are also available on Android and Chrome itself, so if you use Chrome to store and autofill your passwords rather than iCloud, this doesn’t affect you.
Let’s face it: Google Chrome’s reading mode isn’t great. It’s strictly confined to the sidebar, making it impossible to ignore ads or other media on the website next to it that you may otherwise attempt to strip out with reading mode. The latest addition to the feature is arguably a great addition, though.Chrome 118 gets a new Read Aloud option in the sidebar, making it possible to force the browser to read an article to you.
Chrome 118 will automatically disable malicious off-store extensions
If you’re someone who lives adventurous with advanced off-store extensions, this change is for you: When Enhanced Safe Browsing is turned on, Google will automatically disable malicious extensions no matter where you installed them from remotely. This shouldn’t cause any issues with legit extensions only available outside the Chrome Web Store, but it should help combat those with bad intentions.
Chrome 118 improves Safe Browsing settings descriptions
Chrome 118 is improving the way Safe Browsing settings are displayed, making it more clearer which protection level you’re using and what it ensues in both the Security Settings and the Privacy Guide. The update adds a new table to the Enhanced Protection level that’s supposed to make it easier to understand which trade-offs are involved in choosing which options. The other options have also been simplified for a better understanding of their features.
Chrome 118 will sandbox the Network Service on Windows
On Windows, Chrome is getting just a little more secure with a new sandbox for the Network Service, which has already been running as its own separate process for a long time. This is supposed to prevent tampering with the code or injecting something into it. For some businesses, this can lead to issues if they rely on software that does that, with Google citing data loss prevention software as one example. Businesses will be able to temporarily deactivate sandboxing. In the meantime, the browser is just a little safer for everyone else.
Get Chrome 118 right now
Google is rolling out Chrome 118 to all platforms it’s available on, but it may take up to a week until it reaches you. The company has adopted an “early stable” release model where it only sends out the new version to a few people to see if there are any further bugs that it didn’t catch in the beta phase.
