Google announced on Tuesday that the lock icon will be replaced by a new “tune” icon with the release of Chrome 117 in September as part of a wider Material You-themed redesign of the browser. The search giant announced on Tuesday that the lock icon will be replaced with a “tune” symbol in Chrome 117, which is part of a larger Material You redesign.
Google says that only 11 percent in a survey it conducted in the year 2021 understood the purpose of the lock symbol. The lock icon first appeared in the 1990s, following Netscape’s introduction to HTTPS. HTTPS is a protocol which allows users send sensitive information such as login credentials and banking details via the internet. The lock icon is displayed on a website that uses HTTPS as a way to indicate if the connection is secure. The new tune icon. This design doesn’t immediately make me think of controls or settings.
It was useful when HTTPS wasn’t common and people had to be informed about its benefits. But now, more than 95 percent Chrome pages loaded on Windows use the protocol. So it has become the default. Google also believes that some users might mistakenly think that the lock icon is an indication of reliability or trust. This could be dangerous, given that HTTPS does not protect against things such as phishing scams.
In order to get around this problem, the lock icon will be replaced by a variation of the tune symbol that is often used as a control menu. This symbol does not mislead users into thinking it is “trustworthy”, and also has the benefit of encouraging them to click on and get more information about security and connection settings. According to Google’s research, few people are aware of this feature. The new icon will not have any other features and will continue to flag plaintext HTTP on all platforms. Although the page controls below the tune icon remain unchanged, Google hopes that the new design will encourage users to view and click on them.
Google hasn’t changed the lock icon before. In 2016, Google changed the lock icon to remove the colors in order to give it a more neutral appearance. The company also said it would “re-examine” the design in 2021. Initially, it planned to replace the icon with a downward pointing arrow. It’s my opinion that an arrow would have been a more logical choice from a UI standpoint (since it implies you can expand the view to see more). I was embarrassed to admit that it took me a long time before I realized the song symbol represented a slide control. However, other users may have been able to see this more quickly.
Chrome Canary channel users, who have access to an experimental version of the browser used for testing early releases, can see how the new tune icon looks by enabling the a href=”https://pureinfotech.com/enable-new-ui-refresh-2023″>Chrome Refresh 2023 flag. However, Google notes that the feature is still being developed and may change before releasing it. Chrome Canary users, who can access an experimental version of Chrome used to test early releases, can view the new tune icon by activating the Chrome refresh 2023 Flag. Google cautions that this feature is still in development and may change before it is released.
