The web turns 35 years old this August. Generations of developers have shaped this incredible technology and brought countless innovations to our lives. Now, it's the dawn of a new generation, with AI. Here are 10 exciting features unveiled in our Developer Keynote and I/O sessions that will guide your path to better development–through a more powerful web made easier.
1. Gemini Nano integration in Chrome desktop to deliver new, on-device AI features
From Chrome 126, Gemini Nano will be built into the Chrome desktop. Why is this important? You'll be able to deliver powerful AI features to Chrome's billions of users without having to worry about prompt engineering, fine tuning, capacity, or cost. "Help me write" is available in Chrome with on-device power, to help users write short-form content.
Help us shape the future of the web by signing up for our early preview program.
2. WebAssembly and WebGPU enable on-device AI, no matter the AI model you use
We've invested heavily to ensure that AI models run quickly and efficiently by using WebGPU and Wasm–the backbone technologies that enable on-device AI on the web. New improvements like 16-bit floating point values in WebGPU, and Memory64 and JavaScript Promise Integration in Wasm, are making AI run even faster. With Wasm and WebGPU, your AI libraries will be able run models at scale, across a massive range of hardware.
3. AI-powered Chrome DevTools will streamline your debugging process
Chrome DevTools is one of the most popular ways to debug and tune your app. With AI, debugging is about to get so much easier. We're bringing Gemini to the Chrome DevTools Console to generate insights, help you understand what the problem is, and even figure out how to fix it!
Chrome DevTools console insights is available today as an experimental feature in the US, and it's rolling out to more countries soon.
4. Speculation Rules API brings instant browsing experiences
With the new Speculation Rules API, we're enabling near-instant navigation, dramatically speeding up browsing by pre-fetching and pre-rendering pages in the background. Think milliseconds instead of seconds. Best of all? It only requires a few lines of code to get started, and AI can be used to intelligently predict navigation patterns.
5. View Transitions for multi-page sites
We want to redefine how users experience the web. And for developers, we want to change how you build for the web. With the View Transition API, you can easily animate between page states. And now, it works with multi-page apps, enabling you to create fluid navigation regardless of your site's architecture. When combined with Speculation Rules and AI, page transitions can be truly seamless.
6. Web Platform Dashboard for a unified view across browsers
We know it isn't easy keeping up with the latest platform changes, APIs, and frameworks across browsers when they're constantly updating. Baseline provides a way to understand which web features are supported on all browsers. Now, with the Web Platform Dashboard, you'll be able to see the entire web platform mapped out as a set of features, follow their development, and check their interop status.
7. Baseline tooling, right in your workflow
Baseline works best when it's integrated into your workflow. From today, Akamai's RUM Archive has a new tool for developers on RUM Archive Insights. For the first time, you can see the global user share of Baseline versions and features that are unlocked with that version of Baseline, side-by-side.
8. Partial hydration in Angular enables improved performance
We believe one of the best platforms for building and deploying web apps is Angular. We're now working on partial hydration, so JavaScript will only load and hydrate part of your app only when needed, significantly improving Core Web Vitals for performance sensitive apps. Check it out in developer preview in the next couple of weeks.
9. Angular fine-grained reactivity with Signals, right out of the box
We want to give you more granular control over the detection and management of changes in your apps. Enter: fine-grained reactivity with Signals. Angular provides a new set of reactive APIs that empower first-class developer experience with Signals. And Signals enable fine-grained change detection that will check only a fraction of your component tree to propagate state changes, so you no longer have to manually optimize the UI.
Signal-based reactive APIs are available today, right out of the box. Fine-grained change detection is coming later this year.
10. Build 3D immersive experiences in Maps JavaScript API
We're unlocking more ways of building immersive web experiences, by bringing Photorealistic 3D Maps to the familiar Maps JavaScript API from Google Maps Platform. Now, you can take advantage of Google's rendering technology to deliver rich 3D maps at the speed your users expect. The best part: you can get started with a single line of code.
We can't wait to see the stunning, immersive experiences you'll build! Learn more.
Every day, you're breaking through the complexity of development, pushing the limits of what's possible. We're excited to help you create new experiences for all of us to enjoy. Visit developer.chrome.com and web.dev to learn more about this powerful web, made easier. And be sure to connect with us on X, YouTube, and now LinkedIn.
See you at the next I/O!