Chrome v42 for Android brings new website monitoring feature

Google has announced the launch of a new Chrome version for Android devices. The mobile browser is now being updated to version 42.0.2311.107, and while the improvements will not drastically change the way you browse websites on your mobile device, they do include a couple of new features, as well as the usual range of bug fixes and performance improvements.

With the latest version of Chrome for Android, Google introduced the ability to monitor websites for changes in content. Set up the monitoring feature on your favorite website, and Chrome will fire up a notification when the content is changed. Unfortunately, this new feature will not work out of the box, as web developers need to implement the new Google Push API for Chrome. Possible use case scenarios include the ability to be notified when your order status changes. To prevent abuse, the user will have to explicitly set up permissions for these notifications, and the notifications messages themselves include a site setting button.

The other new feature allows is basically a quick way to websites to the home screen, a trick that the Android browser does by monitoring your browsing habits. Once Chrome 42 for Android detects that you regularly visit a website, it will ask for permission to add the website to the home screen. The ability to add a website to the home-screen manually was introduced back in October 2013 with Chrome for Android version 31.

Chrome 42 for Android is now spreading across Google Play servers, but it may take a few days before the update to reaches your mobile device.