Google introduces a new Chrome webpage sharing feature in version 77, letting users easily send links to other devices where they use Chrome
Tom Warren / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands mid-way through Chrome's shift from a rendering engine into an account-attached productivity layer: earlier releases added platform plumbing like autoplay blocking and developer features in Chrome 66, while 2015 brought Android notifications adopted by eBay, Facebook and Pinterest. Version 77's sharing feature extends the same logic from content to navigation itself.
The move also foreshadows where the product went: by 2023 Google had built Nearby Share for Windows, transferring files between PCs and Android devices — link handoff was an early step in that cross-device continuity playbook.
First-order effects
- Users signed into Chrome on multiple devices can now pass a webpage to another device directly, removing the copy-paste or email-to-self workaround for moving a tab between phone and desktop.
Second-order effects
- Every such handoff runs through the Google account, making the account rather than the browser binary the switching cost — the same lock-in dynamic later formalized in Nearby Share.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, browser competition shifts from page-rendering parity toward ecosystem continuity features, which is exactly the frame of Google later adding vertical tabs long offered by Firefox and Edge: catching up on rival-proven surface features while defending the sync layer.
The trend: Browsers are consolidating around account-tethered cross-device ecosystems, where Google's Chrome turns each incremental feature — sharing, notifications, file transfer — into another reason to stay signed in.