Chrome Getting Native Gamepad, Webcam, And WebRTC Support In Early 2012
It's not always easy to tell when Chrome has been updated, and at any rate the changes aren't always significant enough to even wonder about it. But a pair of features worth caring about are user-bound come early 2012 …
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands mid-way through a deliberate 2011 campaign to turn Chrome from a fast page-renderer into an application runtime: February brought the speed, 3D and apps push, and August added plans for Android-style Web Intents baked into Chrome. Native gamepad, webcam and WebRTC support is the hardware layer of that same argument.
The significance is what disappears rather than what appears: if the browser speaks to cameras, controllers and live audio-video directly, the plugin intermediaries that currently own those paths — and the install friction around them — become optional for developers targeting Chrome.
First-order effects
- Web game developers gain a controller input path with no plugin download, making browser games viable beyond mouse-and-keyboard titles on Chrome specifically.
- Video-chat and collaboration apps can prototype against WebRTC natively in Chrome instead of routing through Flash or desktop clients like Skype.
Second-order effects
- Adobe's Flash and other media/input plugins lose their monopoly on camera and real-time communication inside the most-used browser, pressuring their licensing and update economics.
- Rival browser makers face pressure to match the same hardware APIs or cede Chrome the default position for next-generation web apps, repeating the capability race set off by the Web Intents plan.
Third-order effects
- If hardware access standardizes at the browser layer, the operating system's role shrinks to a boot loader for Chrome-class runtimes — the structural endgame of Google's apps-and-intents strategy.
- A browser that owns camera, mic and controller permissions becomes a de facto gatekeeper for user consent and developer distribution, shifting regulatory and privacy scrutiny toward browser vendors.
The trend: Browsers are absorbing native device capabilities one API at a time, converting Chrome from a window onto the web into the application platform itself.