Mar 19 • General discussion
The Chrome API nobody's talking about (but everyone should be using)
So I stumbled onto something pretty awesome recently. We were fixing our sad excuse for a Chrome extension (seriously, it was a mess) when I discovered this Chrome API that's been hiding in plain sight for two years.
Our old extension was a total nightmare. Some freelancer cobbled it together as a proof of concept, and let's just say maintaining it wasn't exactly my idea of fun.
When we finally decided to rebuild it from scratch, we got talking about cool ways to make it better.
That's when I found this thing called the sidePanel API that somehow flew under my radar. And maybe I was living under a rock somehow?
It basically lets you stick a mini app in a drawer on the right side of your browser. And it's actually pretty sweet:
- It sticks around when you hop between tabs or click around on a page
- It's about 300px wide (phone-sized) but users can stretch it wider if they want (no way to control this with code yet... sad face)
- It feels like it belongs there - not like some weird add-on
Why You Should Care
- It's like having a little buddy that hangs out with your browser (no extra windows to manage)
- There's HUGE potential for workflow tools - think note-taking apps, CRMs, page analyzers, all that good stuff
- It's super easy to work with. Sure, there are a couple annoying quirks, but nothing major
If you're into building browser extensions, you've gotta check this out. Seriously, I'm surprised more people aren't using it yet!
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The Chrome API nobody's talking about (but everyone should be using)
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