We recently announced initial support for Chrome in Windows 8 Metro mode. One thing that early testers may have noticed is that some existing plug-ins don't work. These plug-ins are built using a technology called NPAPI, which, like ActiveX, is not compatible with Windows 8 Metro mode.

Note that because Adobe Flash Player and Chrome’s PDF viewer have both been bundled as Pepper plug-ins running in a sandboxed environment in Chrome, these two widely-used plug-ins will continue to work in Windows 8 Metro mode on all websites.

We’ve noticed that other than Flash and PDF, usage of plug-ins has been steadily decreasing over the past few years, to the point where a relatively small percentage of our users load any of these plug-ins at all. The following table shows some well-known plug-ins along with the percentage of active Chrome users who instantiated that plug-in during a 28-day window:

Plug-in name	Percentage
Flash Player	99.9%
Chrome PDF Viewer	58%
Silverlight	26%
Java	12%
QuickTime	4%
Windows Media Player	2%

This data came from more than 20 million Chrome users who have opted in to share non-identifying usage statistics with Google, which are aggregated to understand how Chrome features are used.

We expect NPAPI plug-in usage to continue declining over time, especially since plug-ins can’t run on most phones and tablets. If the trends continue, we look forward to the day when NPAPI can retire peacefully to the countryside.

Posted by Carlos Pizano, Software Engineer and Metro Gnome

Today’s Chrome Beta release includes two new APIs: the getUserMedia API and the Gamepad Javascript API.

The getUserMedia API lets users grant web apps access to their camera and microphone without a plug-in. This is the first step in enabling high quality video and audio communication as part of WebRTC, a powerful new real-time communications standard for the open web platform.

In addition, getUserMedia can be combined with other platform features like CSS filters and WebGL to render effects as the <video> is captured. For example, you can rotate the video and add hipstery filters, play a xylophone with motion detection, try on glasses with face detection, and step into a photobooth with crazy effects like “Snow” and “Fire.” Follow WebRTC on Google+ for the occasional awesome demo update, and check out the video below for an in depth discussion of WebRTC at Google I/O.



The Gamepad Javascript API helps developers access input from any standard gamepad connected to the user’s machine, creating a richer gameplay experience with these controllers. Gamepad access was made available for NaCl in May, and since its introduction has enabled awesome games like AirMech. We’re excited to see what developers will create in JavaScript.

Tommy Widenflycht, Software Engineer and Real-Time Communicator