A few days after the release of Chrome 57 for the desktop, Google has started pushing out the latest update to Android users. This time around, Chrome has more controls for Chrome Custom Tabs, the ability to add recently-visited search engines, support for WebAssembly, and more.
Read MoreChrome 57 adds Custom Tabs improvements, more search engine options, WebAssembly support, and more [APK Download]
Chrome Beta 57 adds full tab controls to Chrome Custom Tabs
Chrome Custom Tabs were introduced back in 2015, as a way for applications to open pages in Chrome without the slow process of actually opening the Chrome app. Custom Tabs load quickly, retain the color of the host app, and can open the page in the full Chrome browser easily.
Read MoreThere are 2 Billion active Chrome browsers across mobile and desktop
Chrome is installed by default on all Android devices that come from Google's partners as well as all Chromebook computers. That probably accounts to a lot of devices, without taking into consideration all the Chrome browsers that users choose to install on their PCs and Macs. So it's not hard to see how the browser could now be running on billions of phones and desktops and actively used on most of them.
Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Chrome's VP Product Management at Google, tweeted today an interesting figure: there are 2 billion active Chrome browsers across mobile and desktop. Rahul doesn't explain what exactly constitutes an "active browser," and over which period of time it had to be used to count, but it's an important stat nonetheless.
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Chrome For Android Hits 1 Billion Installs On The Play Store
When an app reaches 1 billion installs on the Play Store, it's like being officially recognized as one of the cool kids. Chrome for Android is the latest to join the clique, sliding through the door just a week behind Hangouts, making it the 12th app to flash a 10-digit install base.
While induction into this elite group hasn't been quite as impressive since membership hit the double digits, Chrome is among the first of Google's apps that doesn't owe all of its success to pre-installs. The first beta release of Chrome came in early 2012 and only supported Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
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[April Fools] Chrome Selfies Let You Share Spontaneous Pictures Of Your Reaction To Websites
Sometimes words cannot express how websites make you feel. The quickest way to get your emotions across is to simply share the look on your face. This is easy enough in person, and Google is making the online process similarly simple.
This feature is an April Fools treat, so it only seems to be live for people who have their devices set to April 1st. One such person shared this screenshot of Google prompting them as they were browsing Maps.
According to the Google Operating System blog, users can select "Share a reaction" from the Chrome menu. The browser will then take a screenshot of the webpage and activate your device's front-facing camera.
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Chrome's Data Saver Feature Goes From Android To The Desktop, Extension Available In The Chrome Web Store
Tucked away in the settings area of mobile Chrome, there's an option to reduce how much data you use by having Google compress websites before loading them. The feature, known as Data Saver, made its way over to the desktop version of the browser sometime this week.
To clarify precisely which setting we're talking about here, open up Chrome settings on Android and scroll to the bottom.
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Chromium Team Currently Developing Experimental New Tab Page That Renders Large Icons Instead Of Thumbnails For Your Most Visited Sites
Chrome may be one of the most popular web browsers out there, but its new tab page still manages to look like an unfinished product much of time. That's because the browser takes screenshots of your most visited webpages and lists them in a 4 x 2 grid, only sometimes it doesn't have a screenshot to work with. In those cases, it leaves the square blank.
The Chromium team is currently working on a way to pretty things up. It has an experimental new tab page in the works that replaces these largely blank squares with high-quality icons. Here we see the feature on desktop, but presumably it will take effect on Android as well.
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[APK Teardown] Chrome Beta 41 Appears To Be Adding Support For Kid Accounts, Samsung's AirView, And Notifications For Web Apps
Update Wednesday wasn't particularly active this week, but Google did push a few bug fixers out before the day was done. While most of the apps only saw minor version revs with little more than minor tweaks, Chrome Beta 41 came down the pipe with some noteworthy improvements like pull-to-refresh and an option to block only 3rd-party cookies. However, it turns out that those weren't the only new bits to be found in this release.
Kid Accounts, Again
A couple of months ago, Google Play Services 6.5 landed with a handful of new bits and pieces, including the first signs of a feature referred to as Kid Accounts.
Read MoreThe Best Of AP
Chrome Dev Summit Keynote Video Overviews 400 Million Mobile Chrome Users, Upcoming Browser Updates, And More
At this year's Google I/O, the search giant got to announce that 300 million people were using Chrome on a mobile device. Less than half a year later, that number has grown to 400 million. Googler Darin Fisher made the announcement at this year's Chrome Dev Summit held just before the weekend.
During the talk, Fisher touched on a number of topics, some of which we're already aware of. In Android Lollipop, WebView is unbundled from Android, allowing for easier updates and better security (along with generally making life easier for developers). Over the course of this year, Google has also removed the artificial 300ms delay that followed taps in Chrome while the browser waited to see if a second tap was on its way.
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[Updated] Google Chrome Beta Updated To v39 With Reader Mode And Tweaked Tab Closing Animation [APK Download]
There's an update to Chrome Beta (v39) rolling out in the Play Store, and it brings at least one notable feature—Reader Mode. You can probably guess what it is from the name. It strips out all the superfluous stuff on a page, leaving you with just the content. If you want it without waiting, we've got a download for you.
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