Chrome AI Asistant

Google Chrome's DevTools now features an AI Assistant powered by Gemini AI, transforming web development. It enables developers to interact with HTML DOM, network calls, source files

Key Benefits of the AI Assistant:

1. Debugging API and Network Issues: The AI Assistant identifies HTTP errors (such as 404 or 500), detects CORS policy violations, and suggests optimizations for API performance, including reducing payload sizes or implementing caching strategies.

2. UI Debugging and Fixing Layout Issues: It analyzes CSS conflicts, identifies hidden elements, and offers solutions to responsiveness problems, ensuring a consistent and accessible user interface.

3. Performance Optimization: The assistant highlights slow-loading resources, recommends image compression, and suggests caching strategies to enhance page load times and overall performance.

4. Accessibility Testing: It identifies missing alt text, low color contrast issues, and ensures proper keyboard navigation, aiding compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

5. Security and Compliance Checks: The AI Assistant detects insecure HTTP requests, missing security headers, and exposed API keys, helping to fortify the website’s security posture.

6. Troubleshooting JavaScript Errors: It analyzes console errors, identifies undefined variables or syntax errors, and suggests optimizations to improve JavaScript performance.

7. Retrieving Network Calls/API Data: The assistant provides insights into network requests, helping to understand their origins, purposes, and impacts on performance.

8. Obtaining Page Locators: It assists in retrieving page locators like XPath and CSS selectors, facilitating efficient element targeting for testing and automation purposes.

Using AI for UI Debugging:

To utilize the AI Assistant for UI debugging:

• Select an element in the HTML tree.

• Right-click and choose “Ask AI Assistant.”

• You can then ask questions such as:

• “Why is this button not clickable?”

• “What styles are affecting this dropdown?”

• “Why is this element overlapping?”

• “How can I fix responsiveness issues?”

The AI Assistant will analyze the selected element and provide insights or solutions to address the identified issues.

How to Enable AI Assistant in Chrome DevTools:

1. Open Chrome DevTools by pressing F12 or using Ctrl + Shift + I (Cmd + Option + I on Mac).

2. Click on the settings (gear) icon within DevTools.

3. Navigate to the “AI Innovations” tab.

4. Enable the “AI Assistance” option.

5. Ensure you are signed into Chrome with your Google Account and that English (US) is selected in settings under Settings > Preferences > Appearance > Language in DevTools.

6. After enabling, you can access the AI Assistant by right-clicking on a node in the DOM tree and selecting “Ask AI,” or by clicking the AI icon that appears when an element is selected.

By integrating AI Assistance into Chrome DevTools, Google aims to streamline the debugging and optimization processes, making it easier for developers and testers to identify issues and enhance website performance.

For a visual walkthrough of these features, you can watch the following video:

AI in Chrome DevTools?!?