Google Chrome Apps have helped the Chrome browser achieve the best online web browser crown. There are plenty of apps to play with, some of them are really helpful and productive. Recently Google added Chrome Web Store badge to let users know the popular and trending apps. The badges were like “On Fire” or “Hot” etc.
Now moving to the next stage, they have added a new section named “Offline” to let you easily find apps which work perfectly fine without Internet or data connection. For example, you can read New York Times paper app without any data connection Or play Angry Bird without wi-fi.
These offline apps were already there in the web store but now they have got a common umbrella. Navigation to the “Offline” section which is available under “Collection” tab on left-side of the store. I think, the below attached screenshot will help you with the navigation.
If you are chrome app developer, you can add your app in this section by adding “offline_enabled” flag in the app metadata. Once you will edit the metadata accordingly, your app will start appearing in Offline section as well.
Google is trying really hard to make the Chrome browser a single place where yo can do everything related to web. Even the Chrome OS launch and the devices like Chromebook and Chromebox depends entirely on Google Chrome browser and Chrome Apps. This type of navigation and feature will add more users to the Chrome Web Store and the browser itself.
How does Offline Apps work?
You must be thinking that if you are not having data connection, then how these offline Chrome Apps work on your browser. Actually the modern browsers like Google Chrome are having internal storage (also known as Web Storage or DOM Storage) to store and serve data from browser itself. This allows apps to store data inside the browser and access that from there. If the data is stored inside the browser memory, it is not required to fetch the data from server. And if the apps is fetching data from browser only, there is no need to have data connection as the browser data is stored locally on your machine.
Enjoy useful and fun apps from Chrome Web Store even when you are not having data connection. Have fun.