Chrome 56 Introduces Support for FLAC Audio Format
Chrome 56 is gearing up for release, and it brings an exciting addition: integrated support for the FLAC audio format. FLAC is a lossless audio playback format, and after years of user feedback, Chrome vendors have finally incorporated support for this format in the browser. Mozilla Firefox has already supported FLAC, and now Google Chrome joins the ranks, offering users the same feature with a faster browser.
Chrome 56
Currently, Google Chrome version 56 is in beta testing, and its stable version will be available to users very soon. With this new version, users can directly play FLAC audio music within the Google Chrome browser.
Chrome 56 and the Advantages of FLAC in Web Browsing
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It is a lossless format for audio compression derived from the Ogg Codec family. The term “lossless” indicates that no audio streams are removed from the file, as is the case with formats like MP3. This preservation of audio quality and bitrates makes FLAC a preferred choice for audiophiles. The FLAC format was developed by the Xiph.org foundation, and they have recently updated the format codec in 2017.
Notably, Google Chrome is not the first web browser to introduce FLAC support. Mozilla Firefox incorporated FLAC support in Mozilla Firefox version 51.0 beta. Although it is still in the beta version for Mozilla, the final release is expected soon. Chrome users have been requesting FLAC support since 2011, and vendors finally initiated work to add this functionality to Chrome in September 2016 to ensure that this new feature would be part of the new Google Chrome.