Chrome 160 Release Notes

The Prompt API Sampling Parameters allow developers to control the output variety of the built-in AI language model. Instead of exposing raw numerical parameters (e.g. topK and temperature) which can behave inconsistently across different underlying model families and versions, this feature introduces a categorical samplingMode enum. This allows the browser to handle the heavy lifting of mapping semantic presets to optimal raw parameters for a specific underlying model, providing developers with the necessary granularity to tune responses while maintaining cross-browser interoperability.

enum LanguageModelSamplingMode { "most-predictable", // For strict consistency/factual extraction "predictable", // For highly focused outputs "slightly-predictable", // For moderately focused, consistent outputs "balanced", // The default state for standard prompting "slightly-creative", // For moderately varied, expressive outputs "creative", // For tasks favoring variety over strict facts "most-creative" // For maximum token diversity and brainstorming };

This feature is an enhancement of the Prompt API (https://chromestatus.com/feature/5134603979063296).

Adds Source-Specific Multicast (SSM) support to the Direct Sockets API, allowing Isolated Web Apps to optionally specify a source address when joining multicast groups to receive UDP packets only from that source. Without a source address, joinGroup() uses Any-Source Multicast (ASM), which receives packets from any source sending to the group. SSM is essential to using multicast outside of private networks, simplifying packet routing, and filtering traffic at the network level by source address, which mitigates spoofing and denial-of-service attacks.

Starting in Chrome 160, Chrome will remove support for the RTCPeerConnection.createDTMFSender() method on Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, and Android.

This is a legacy, non-standard method that is obsolete and no longer conforms to the official Real-time communication for the web(WebRTC) standard. Removing it ensures better compatibility and security across different web browsers.

Before Chrome 160 is deployed, admins should test any internal or third-party web communication applications that rely on WebRTC.

Chrome 151 began deprecating support for unspecified presentation and issuance protocols in the Digital Credentials API; final removal is scheduled for Chrome 160.

The Digital Credentials API was originally designed to be an opaque pipeline for arbitrary exchange protocols. In November 2025, the FedID WG resolved to change this so that the spec normatively referenced only a specific set of exchange protocols.

The removal of support for arbitrary, opaque pipelines ensures that only verified protocols are used, enabling a more robust privacy and security threat model for identity verification. This change aligns Chromium with updated industry specifications that normatively reference only a specific set of exchange protocols.