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Google’s Chrome browser just got some new speed, search and sharing updates in the latest versions released for Android and iOS users, bringing improved performance to the smaller screens of mobile devices.
The new Android version of the Chrome browser brings faster search and scrolling performance due to the inclusion of the latest V8 JavaScript engine, which has been optimized for mobile, according to a March 4 post by mobile software engineers Grace Kloba and Rohit Rao on the Google Chrome Blog.
“Speed is critical, especially when you’re on the go,” wrote Kloba and Rao. “With the latest version of Chrome for Android, you can scroll and fling to view all of your favorite Web pages with even more speed and ease.”
The latest version has “improved the Octane performance benchmark by 25 percent on average since our previous update,” they wrote. “This means that interactions within Web pages in the browser are snappier.”
Also now included in the latest release for Android is expanded support for HTML5 features such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Filters.
Chrome users of the iOS version on Apple iPads or iPhones are also gaining new features in the latest release of the browser, Chrome 25, which is optimized for their devices.
“Now you can see your search term in the omnibox [also known as the address bar], instead of the long search URL,” wrote Kloba and Rao. “This will help you refine search queries and view more content on the results page. This feature will roll out in the coming weeks, so you may not see it right away after upgrading.”
Other new features for Android and iOS users are the ability to quickly view your tab history by pressing and holding the back button to access any page you previously visited from that tab, according to the post. Users can also now more easily share Web pages they are viewing by clicking the “menu” button and then the “share” button to share a page via email or to a favorite social network.
“We’re continuing to add plenty of under-the-hood stability, security improvements and bug fixes to Chrome for both Android and iOS,” wrote Kloba and Rao. “We look forward to your feedback on the latest versions of Chrome, now available on Google Play and in the App Store.”
The latest Chrome browser for Android was unveiled by Google Feb. 27 as part of the Chrome for Android program, which provides a customized version of the popular browser that is built to run specifically on Android devices.
Since this past January, Android users have been able to try out the beta version of the Chrome browser on their devices through the Chrome Android beta program, which gives users access to the beta code before it reached the stable release phase. The capabilities are available for Android developers and other users who are running Android 4.0 or later on their devices.
Chrome for Android was launched in February 2012. The Chrome beta channel gives developers and other users the chance to see and use many features that are in development for the Android version. Users running Windows, Mac and Linux versions of the Chrome browser already have similar access to beta versions as well as to the stable release versions.
Developers don’t have to choose to ditch the release version of Chrome to try out the beta channel on their devices. Instead, the beta version can be installed alongside the user’s current version of Chrome for Android. The beta version will request additional permissions when using Chrome Sync for the first time.
Chrome celebrated its fourth birthday in September 2012 and has accomplished a lot since its launch. In June 2012, Chrome surpassed Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the world’s most used browser for the first time, and it has added lots of useful features and strengths over the years to encourage even more users to adopt it.