Google has today released Chrome Beta for devices running Android 4.0 and above, it’s a new way for Google to try out new features and code in Chrome with a wider audience than with just developers before rolling them into the more mainstream Chrome for Android release. With recent criticisms of Chrome for Android starting to hit boiling point anything is needed at this stage to improve the performance of what was once the best browser for Android.
The new version is 25.0.1364.8 and is a bit of a leap over the Chrome 18 release that’s in use in the Play Store and whilst it includes better HTML5 support and Javascript performances it also has some issues -hence the beta tag- which the Chrome team has laid out here:
- Performance is sluggish, noticeably on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S
- Frequent freeze on devices with specific versions of Qualcomm GPU driver
- Text autosizing may break formatting on some sites
- 164632 – Editing bookmark feature is broken
- 165244 – Text position handler jumps or disappears when moving
- 163439 – Clicking on links in yahoo.com not navigating on Nexus 7
- 166233 – Unable to submit comments on Facebook posts in desktop version of Facebook
- 165244 – Text handler jumps or disappears when moving
- 167351 – Youtube video controls are lost after returning from fullscreen video mode
- 162486 – iframe scrolling broken
Google intends to push out updates to the app regularly and highly recommends that if you find a bug not listed above that you report it back to them via this link.
The Chrome Beta is apparently not searchable from within the Google Play app on your device so you’ll need to use this direct link so you can install it. On my Nexus 4 the app runs brilliantly, it’s fast and loads pages super quick but users of the Galaxy Nexus have certainly reported issues so far, which is to be expected as per the release notes.
I recommend giving it a go but bear in mind that it is a Beta so anything can break or not work at any stage, so it might be worthwhile keeping any other browser you have installed running alongside it as well until you’re sure about it. Try it and let us know what you think of the new Chrome Beta in the comments and don’t forget to say which device you’re running it on.
100,000+ DLs now.
It is good that Google have released this but I dont find it much different to the stable release. I have never had the problems I hear many others complain of apart from a few websites being laggy, maybe 15%. This is on a One X+ and Nexus 10, which is rarely laggy.
The one thing I do find strange is that some sites loaded with ads and junk everywhere are silky smooth while some mobile sites stutter.
The standard Google chrome for android is really bad. On all of my devices (Galaxy S2/ Galaxy S3 / Nexus 7) the JavaScript / jQuery rendering is abysmal. Animations are choppy and leggy and pretty much all of the pretty and fun elements are slow.
I’ve abandoned chrome for now in favour of Firefox Beta and Dolphin Beta since both render and interact with the JavaScript library fast.
Installs “5-10” lol.