In a move that will please developers of web browsers for iOS, Google has decided to open source its Chrome for iOS browser, uploading the code to the open-source Chromium repository.
For those who aren’t aware, Chromium is basically the open-source version of the popular Chrome browser, and new features often find their way into Chromium before they show up in Chrome. Due to its open-source nature, many other browser makers use the Chromium software as a base, including Opera which made the move in 2013.
Of the move to open-source Chromium for iOS, Google’s developers said:
Given Chrome’s commitment to open-source code, we’ve spent a lot of time over the past several years making the changes required to upstream the code for Chrome for iOS into Chromium. Today, that upstreaming is complete, and developers can compile the iOS version of Chromium like they can for other versions of Chromium. Development speed is also faster now that all of the tests for Chrome for iOS are available to the entire Chromium community and automatically run any time that code is checked in.
Developers interested in building an iOS browser now have a new starting point. This announcement means you can expect to see improved, as well as completely new, iOS browsers from third-party developers.
