Google could soon kill the ‘Supervised User’ feature on its Chrome browser with the Chrome 70 update. As per a new commit on the Chromium Gerrit, via XDA Developers, the company is removing the feature completely in an upcoming Chrome update. The Supervised User feature is quite handy for creating Chrome users under one’s profile. A user could create browsing restrictions and modify settings for sub-profiles, making it useful for people who share a computer or for parents who want to keep their children’s internet browsing in-check. Early this year, Google had already announced that the service will be deprecated later in 2018.
As per the report, Google later revoked settings modification that one had made for a sub-profile, thus killing the feature in a sense. The Chromium Gerrit suggests that the company might modify the info bar for Supervised Users to announce the end-of-life in version 70 of Google Chrome, which is expected to be released around October this year. The feature is speculated to be completely removed in the upcoming update and those who want the same set of features will have to rely on Google Family Link app. Family Link comes with additional features like management of the apps children can use, how much screen time they are allotted and more. However, Family Link is currently unavailable for most countries outside the US. So, is Google planning a broader rollout of Family Link once the Supervised User feature is phased out? There is no official confirmation of this, so we will have to wait to know more.
Speaking of Chrome, Google is also planning to implement Material Design on it. The news was recently announced by François Beaufort, who works as an open-source Chromium evangelist. Beaufort said that the browser UI has been refreshed with the Material design for Chrome OS, Linux and Windows. With the revamped design, Chrome will sport a new address bar, get new tab shapes and some additional colours. Beaufort also revealed that some new changes have come to Omnibox suggestion icons, tab strip colouring, pinned tabs and alert indicators. You can read more on this here.