Besides video conferencing apps, Chrome 109 now supports the experimental SPC standard for faster payments.
Google is currently rolling out the stable version of Chrome 109 on desktop and mobile as it adds new features. However, those features are dependent on third-party developers implementing them.
The update gives developers (opens in new tab) new tools to improve the interactivity between their software and the browser. Conditional Focus (opens in new tab) is being added, which will allow a video conferencing app to decide if it wants to focus on either a tab or window when screen sharing begins. If the developers want neither, they can set the capturing page as the main display instead. In a similar fashion to what Zoom already does, the browser will also be able to suppress audio in a video call so people don’t have to mute their microphone. The main difference is Chrome’s audio suppression appears to work with all video conferencing apps so long as the developers have tweaked their software to support it.
For Chrome 109 on mobile, the browser now works with the experimental Secure Payment Confirmation (SPC) standard allowing people to use their phone’s biometric screen unlocking feature for verifying payments.
