Chrome has been deprecating Chrome-specific technologies in favor of standard web platform features as they become available. Historically, Secure Shell has built on top of a lot of those features only available to Chrome Apps because there was no other option when they were launched. As a project that has been in active development for almost a decade, and has many active users (1 million+ 7DA's), we need to make sure things continue to work for everyone even as the underlying platform shifts.
This document will serve to keep users & developers up-to-date.
First off, you should install the extension:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/iodihamcpbpeioajjeobimgagajmlibd
The app & extension are completely feature equivalent. Anything you do in the app today can be done in the extension.
NB: This wasn't the case before the 0.22 releases & Chrome R81, but is now.
Any keys you've imported have never been synced or exported or backed up. You will need to manually re-import them into the extension.
When the extension is installed the first time, it will automatically sync your preferences (including saved connections) from the app so you don't have to.
No settings will be synced between them again. If you make changes in one, you will have to manually make them in the other. Or just uninstall the old app and not worry about it!
These files are not synced or preserved anywhere. Any local customizations you've made will need to be manually migrated.
The app is accessible through the shelf & app launcher. The extension is accessible through the extension bar (the set of icons to the right of the omnibox in the upper right of the Chrome window).
The app opens as a tab by default with an option to open as a window. The extension opens as a window by default with a way to open as a tab. The trick is to hold Ctrl when clicking the connection.
It's still possible to pin a shortcut to the shelf on ChromeOS (dock on macOS or taskbar on Windows).
See the FAQ for detailed instructions.
People should be using ssh://
URIs to launch Secure Shell.
If you want to switch the app that handles ssh://
links, visit the chrome://settings/handlers
page.
If you've been using chrome-extension://pnhechapfaindjhompbnflcldabbghjo
, switch to chrome-extension://iodihamcpbpeioajjeobimgagajmlibd
instead.
If you use ssh
in the omnibox, the extension should automatically take over handling it because it's been installed after the app. See the FAQ for more details.
The extension requires functionality that will only ever exist in newer versions of ChromeOS. Unfortunately EOL devices will never be able to upgrade to these versions. The Chrome App will continue to be built on top of NaCl & Chrome Apps for now. So EOL users need not migrate.
See the CrOS device list for the list of affected systems:
https://dev.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices
Now for things we're planning for but have not yet happened. These plans are subject to change of course.
We will probably keep the Secure Shell App as a Chrome App and using NaCl for EOL CrOS devices stuck on <M80.