Do you use the Google Chrome app menu often? I am talking about the list of apps that appear on chrome://apps on Windows and macOS computers.

If you are a regular user of the app menu, you are in luck. Google is preparing a major update for chrome://apps page. If you do not use this page yet, this could be a good time to start.

What’s Changing?

Luckily for us, the design document and UX mockup slides for this change are publicly available.

The tl;dr version of the design document is this; the apps menu on Chrome for Windows and macOS will start to look and work more like the Chrome OS apps menu.

The new menu will use a fluid design that will behave better when you resize your Chrome window.

In addition to the layout changes, the new menu refresh will bring a bunch of new features. According to the design document, they are:

• Quickly grant or revoke access to common device APIs (notifications, mic, camera, location)
• Any shortcuts defined by the app. Up to 4 shortcuts will be shown.
• Launch settings
• Remove/uninstall from this device or all devices.
• Deep link into app settings.

Here is an example. You can right-click the Google Docs app to create a new document.

As usual, it will take a few weeks before we can see this new feature in action. Stay tuned to Chrome Story for updates on this and much other upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS features.

I might consider making the new apps menu my default when it is ready. It will be nice to see a list of Chrome apps whenever I open Chrome.

What about you? Let me know in the comments section below.

Source: Chromium Gerrit.