Ever since Apple debuted the new MacBook Pro lineup with its new Touch Bar, third-party applications supporting the skinny OLED touch screen have slowly become available. It looks as if Google’s Chrome browser is about to join the fold, as the initial Canary build of the app offers Touch Bar Support.
Features
Owners of the 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch bar can now use it in the Chrome 58 beta build to launch a new tab, search, and more. The far left end of the Touch Bar offers backward and forward buttons, as well as a refresh button. The center of the bar offers a convenient “Search or Type URL” field that takes users to the address bar when it is tapped. Also available on the OLED touch screen are a New Tab button and a Favorites button to quickly add a website to your personal list of favorite sites.
9to5Mac notes that currently, the Touch Bar buttons are static, meaning they don’t change as needed when your browser usage changes, such as offering up playback controls for playing a video. Word prediction is also not currently available.
It should be noted that “Canary” is the initial stage of any Chrome beta, and the Touch Bar features could change as the beta moves forward. It could also completely disappear from the app, although that isn’t likely. (Google offers four different channels of Chrome, including Canary, Developer, Beta, and Stable.)
Download the Chrome 58 Canary Build
Interested users can try out Chrome’s Touch Bar support by downloading the downloading the canary build from Google’s website. The beta version will run alongside your current Chome installation, which is nice, as using a beta for your day-to-day browsing activities is never recommended.
