Chrome’s new download manager is almost ready, a Reddit user has discovered. For months in development, the replacement for the download bar at the bottom of the screen is finally starting to take shape in the browser’s test version, but it still seems far from the final implementation.
The discovery by recurring informant u/Leopeva64-2 this time is the download balloon itself, now able to be enabled in the browser. This new section should take the place of the download bar at the bottom of the screen, which has been standard in Google Chrome for years.
Chrome’s New Download Manager
The management balloon only appears on the screen when a download is in progress, and can be minimized without interrupting the progress of downloaded files. It appears in the upper right corner of the screen, just like in the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge manager, whose manager follows the same style.
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For now, Chrome’s download balloon structure is pretty rudimentary and requires a lot of tweaking — the Edge version is significantly more robust. Buttons like “View in folder”, “Delete” or the simple “Open” button are missing. The only functional button in the manager is the “Show all downloads”.
Previously, the file manager rework was just a rumor based on clues found by users in the browser. However, it looks like Google really plans to replace the old downloads bar with the new interface that, in some ways, can be less disruptive to everyday browsing.
That said, if not even testers have access to the feature, there’s no telling when it will be released. The fact is that the novelty must arrive first as a flag in the menu chrome://flags for Chrome Canary users and won’t reach the general public until months later.
