Chrome 78 Hits Beta With Native File System API, Much Faster WebSockets

Google on Friday released the Chrome 78 web-browser beta following last week's release of Chrome 77.

Chrome 78 Beta is coming with a new Houdini API or more formally known as the CSS Properties and Values API Level 1, which lets developers register variables as fully custom CSS properties and can better handle animations and other use-cases.

Another new API and likely to receive some heat is the Native File System API that allows web app developers to interact with files stored on a local device. The examples supplied are for implementing programming IDEs, photo / video editors, text editors, and others that may want to read/save changes directly to files/folders on-disk from the web browser.

Some of the other work for the Chrome 78 Beta includes opacity improvements, faster WebSockets (up to 7.5x faster on Linux!), an SMS Receiver API, WebHID support, and other alterations. More details on the Chrome 78 Beta via Chromium.org.