Google today officially released the stable version of Chrome 145 for Windows, macOS and Linux desktop platforms. The biggest highlight of this update is the reintroduction of support for the JPEG‑XL image format. As early as 2022, Google abandoned and removed JPEG‑XL support in the Chrome/Chromium code base. After a few years, this modern image format has returned to the browser's core rendering engine Blink.
In terms of technical implementation, Chrome 145 does not fall back to the old C++ version of the libjxl library, but uses the jxl-rs decoder written in Rust to improve memory safety and overall reliability. In the current version, JPEG‑XL decoding functionality is still controlled through the enable-jxl-image-format experimental switch in the browser, and users need to explicitly enable this option to use related capabilities.
In addition to JPEG‑XL, Chrome 145 brings several updates to the web front-end and browser platform capabilities. In terms of web standards support, the new version adds support for the CSS attribute text-justify and improves column wrapping behavior in multi-column layout (multicol) to provide more granular control for typesetting and reading experience. The browser also introduces device bound session credentials, which is expected to provide stronger binding and anti-counterfeiting capabilities in authentication and session security.
In terms of storage and performance, Chrome 145 adds a SQLite backend to IndexedDB to achieve a more reliable and efficient data persistence solution. At the same time, the browser further simplifies the User-Agent string by default to protect user privacy and reduce fingerprint tracking while maintaining a balance with site compatibility. The new version also adds the Upsert capability and a series of other underlying improvements, allowing developers to have more flexible operating space when processing data and interfaces.
More technical details and developer instructions about the Chrome 145 feature changes can be found in the related blogs published by the ChromeStatus platform:
https://chromestatus.com/roadmap