Both Chrome and Firefox support TLS 1.3, which IETF released the final version of last week, improving both security and speed
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
The final TLS 1.3 spec landing at IETF closes a loop that started well before the standard was done: Cloudflare turned TLS 1.3 on by default for its customers back in 2016, running the draft protocol at scale while the IETF hashed out the final version. With Chrome and Firefox now shipping support, the two browsers that set the de facto baseline for the web have made the new handshake real for end users.
The timing matters because HTTPS adoption was already the industry's shared project — Google reported in 2017 that roughly two-thirds or more of Chrome traffic across platforms was encrypted. TLS 1.3 gives that push a faster, stronger foundation, and weeks later Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla followed with a coordinated plan to kill TLS 1.0 and 1.1 outright.
First-order effects
- Users of Chrome and Firefox get shorter connection handshakes and modernized cryptography immediately, while sites already fronted by early adopters like Cloudflare see the benefits without changing their own servers.
Second-order effects
- Server operators still running older TLS stacks face mounting pressure to upgrade, since browser support for the new version plus the vendors' announced deprecation of TLS 1.0/1.1 narrows the acceptable configuration window.
Third-order effects
- The pattern repeats the SPDY-to-HTTP/2 transition: browser vendors and large CDN operators now effectively set the adoption clock for core internet protocols, with the same trio moving next to HTTP/3 — standards bodies finalize, but deployment speed is dictated by what Chrome and Firefox ship.
The trend: Core web protocol upgrades are increasingly driven by browser vendors and CDNs deploying early and deprecating old versions on a coordinated schedule, with the IETF finalizing what the ecosystem has already begun running.