Intent to Extend Experiment: Tabbed web apps

[Brett Wilson]

Hi Blink owners,

We would like to apply to extend the Tabbed web apps origin trial until November 26th, 2024.

This API is already approved to ship in 126 (Intent to Ship thread) and the flag has been enabled in the 126 branch.

However, we have noticed an issue with the origin trial system which will create a significant gap in functionality for ChromeOS Long-Term Support (LTS) users. Currently, the origin trial is set to expire on August 7th, 2024, which is 6 weeks after 126 stable starts rolling out on ChromeOS. However, per Chromium Dash, M126 will only be released to ChromeOS LTS users on October 1, 2024, which is 8 weeks after the origin trial expires. This means ChromeOS LTS users who have installed apps that use the Tabbed Mode origin trial in M120 will see those apps automatically revert to standalone (non-tabbed) windows, which may be an experience the application authors never intended users to see, and have that unintended experience linger for over 8 weeks.

Therefore, we are taking the unusual step of asking for an extension even though the API is already shipping. Since ChromeOS LTS begins rolling out on October 1, we are asking for an extension until 8 weeks after that date, which is November 26th. This will ensure a majority of LTS users have upgraded to 126 before the origin trial expires.

We understand that the extension of origin trials is taken seriously to avoid burn-in risk and also to avoid an incentive to hold back on older versions of browsers. However, neither of those apply in this case: with the API already shipping in 126, the burn-in issue is moot. And there is no incentive to hold back the browser version as the API will be available in newer versions anyway. Therefore, this is not extending the exposure risk of the API, it is just ensuring that users who are still on older versions will have enough time to upgrade before the feature disappears from those old versions.

Thank you,

Brett

[Chris Harrelson]

Makes sense to me. IMO more than one LGTM (or even my LGTM) is not necessary because the feature is already shipping, and in that sense this extension is a technicality.

LGTM

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