Chrome's silly app launcher is finally gone

As promised earlier this year, Google has officially removed the weird app launcher that it bundled with the Chrome browser for Windows and Mac with the launch of Chrome 52, reports VentureBeat. The launcher, which is still going to live in Chrome OS, allowed you to launch Chrome apps without having to have the browser open. But more often than not, it was duplicative of the app launchers that are natively in Windows and macOS. Chrome apps will now live in those launchers and will retain the ability to be opened when the browser is closed.

If you're using a Mac, there's another treat with Chrome 52. As noted by 9to5Mac, the latest stable version brings the Material design elements first spotted in Chrome OS in April to Apple's desktop platform. Expect to see slightly redesigned tabs, buttons, and menus when you update. No word on when this will be available for Windows, but if you are adventurous and poke around in the chrome://flags settings in the beta versions of the browser, you should be able to manually enable it.

Aside from these changes, Google says Chrome 52 delivers 48 security fixes and other new performance features that will be detailed in the near future. To update, go to the Settings menu and click About Chrome.

• Via9to5Mac VentureBeat
• SourceGoogle