Google launches Chrome 70 with option to disable linked sign-ins, which are enabled by default, support for PWAs on Windows and an AV1 decoder, and more
Google today launched Chrome 70 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The release includes an option to disable linking Google site and Chrome sign-ins …
Context & Ripple Effects
This release lands on schedule: Google pre-announced the sign-in unlink option in late September, promising it for mid-October after the default linking of Google website logins with Chrome sign-ins drew user complaints. Shipping it as an off-switch rather than reversing the default is the compromise Google settled on.
The other two headline features complete an arc the related coverage has been tracking all year — Chrome OS 67 brought Progressive Web App support to Chromebooks in June with ZDNet noting Mac and Windows would follow — and Chrome 70 is that follow-through, extending Google's app-platform ambitions to its largest desktop base alongside an AV1 decoder for next-generation video.
First-order effects
- Windows, Mac, and Linux users who resented being signed into Chrome whenever they logged into a Google site can now sever the two, though they must find the setting since linking remains on by default.
- Windows users gain the ability to install PWAs as standalone apps, and sites using AV1 video can decode it in software on machines without dedicated hardware support.
Second-order effects
- Developers building PWAs can now target one installable codebase across Chrome OS and Windows instead of maintaining separate desktop apps, shifting distribution toward the browser and away from native installers on Microsoft's platform.
- Keeping linked sign-ins on by default while offering an opt-out preserves Google's cross-service data graph for the silent majority, meaning the privacy concession costs Google little aggregate signal even as it defuses criticism.
Third-order effects
- If the cadence holds — Chrome 76 later added an Incognito-detection safeguard on top of this release's sign-in opt-out — Google's pattern is to ship integration first and granular privacy controls only after pushback, making user backlash the de facto regulator of browser defaults.
- With PWAs spanning Chrome OS and Windows, Chrome is consolidating into a de facto application layer across operating systems, which is exactly the kind of cross-platform gatekeeping position that historically attracts antitrust scrutiny.
The trend: Chrome is steadily expanding from web viewer into a cross-OS application platform, with privacy defaults conceded incrementally under user pressure rather than designed in from the start.