Chrome exists in a weird place between a desktop app and an operating system. While the Chrome app launcher makes sense on a Chromebook, it’s weird on other desktops. So Google’s removing it.
Google announced the change on its Chromium blog. Over the next few months, Google will start to phase out the app launcher. While it will still be included for a while, Chrome will no longer prompt new users to try it out. Eventually, it will be removed entirely.
Retiring the Chrome app launcher [Chromium Blog]
Comments
2 responses to “Google Is Killing The Chrome App Launcher For Windows, Mac And Linux”
Noooo! I actually use this quite a lot – it’s an amazing way to switch between accounts and sandbox my work and personal chrome accounts across devices. This is not the news I’d hoped to see today!
This is a great shame. Mainly since it allows productivity links (e.g. Calendar) to be directly pinned to the task bar.
The same functionality can be achieved by manually creating and pinning a URL shortcut, but the above method is so much easier and remains logged in at all times.