NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I have written often about Chromebooks and, if you own a Chromebook, this article will be very important for you. (Anyone else can skip this article.)

Chrome Apps on your Chromebook is finally about to be replaced by Progressive Web Apps (PWA), with the latest Chrome stable version 112 as the starting point.

It’s an initiative almost five years in the making, and this change brings a few notable benefits.

Chrome Apps (and by extension, the Chrome Web Store) had been around for more than a decade, believe it or not, installing apps, extensions, and themes for millions of users on the Google Chrome browser. Most people who used Chromebooks had a love-hate relationship with apps found on the Chrome Web Store as many of the apps (such as Zoom, Pocket, Skype, etc.) were websites that had less functionality than their mobile app counterparts and less cross-device support (where apps won’t size properly with a tablet or laptop, for example).

With PWAs — which are essentially more advanced versions of Chrome Apps — almost all the negatives of Chrome Apps are negated. PWAs run technically as a website, but mimic their native mobile application, with most, if not all, of its functionality. PWAs are more scalable for different display sizes. Another big plus is that PWAs, like your mobile apps, are maintained by the developers, so updates are automatic and don’t require users to visit the Web Store for updates

You can read the full story in an article by Aaron Leong published in the DigitalTrends.com web site at: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/google-just-made-a-big-change-to-how-chromebooks-apps-work/.