14 ms·

Introducing Chrome for Android

476 points by cleverjake 15y ago

sathishmanohar 15y ago
This app is incompatible with your Nexus S. :(
angryasian 15y ago
Finally. If this can actually live up to the desktop experience, I hope we can finally bring an end to the app. Only available for ICS https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome
benologist 15y ago
Douche move making it require Ice Cream Sandwich while they don't require telcos to ship any of us upgrades.
- bryne 15y ago
  Do you really still think Google has any say in the whole carrier upgrade thing?
  - benologist 15y ago
    You're right, it's not Google's fault that they're only armed with: a) the only operating system that really competes with iOS while everyone struggle to compete with the iPhone b) mountains of cash c) a factory full of smart people solving much harder problems It's much better to just abandon every single generation of Android and the hardware it shipped on!
- steve-howard 15y ago
  If Samsung didn't lock down the bootloader so fucking tight on my $500 phone I wouldn't have to care what the telco does.
  - jsight 15y ago
    Which Samsung Android device has a locked bootloader?
    - nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
      Most of the non-Nexus phones technically have a locked bootloader, so that people can only run firmware signed by the carrier. In practice, there are ways of jailbreaking the vast majority of locked phones, but there are some people who don't want to void their warranty or don't want to use community ROMs.
      - jsight 15y ago
        AFAIK (and some google searching seems to confirm) the Galaxy SII does not have a locked bootloader. I believe that the original Galaxy S was also unlocked. So which Samsung Android devices have locked bootloaders? Motorola and HTC tend to lock their bootloaders more often (though this situation is improving).
    - steve-howard 15y ago
      I'm so sorry, I was incorrect. I briefly owned a Nexus S which had an unlocked bootloader. I currently own a Motorola Photon, and even though there are ways to flash the bootloader, doing so cripples 4g (I believe this is by design).
- starwed 15y ago
  Yeah, lets just go ahead and assume there are no technical reasons here...
- thetrendycyborg 15y ago
  It has canvas hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration is a new feature in Android 4. Hence, it is only available on ICS.
  - gcp 15y ago
    They could have added fallbacks. HW graphics acceleration is also possible on pre-ICS Android, anyway.
- angryasian 15y ago
  probably more related more to a minimum hardware requirements.
- apress 15y ago
  It's using 4.0 APIs, according to Matt Seigler's story and interview with Google SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai: "Back to the bad news: some of the more advanced features of Chrome for Android require APIs found only in Ice Cream Sandwich, so the team made the call to make it only available for Android 4.0 and beyond. Again, this means only 1% of current Android users out there can actually get and use the browser right now." - http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-the-browser-for-the-1 http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-th...
  - fpgeek 15y ago
    1% of Android users is still at least a couple million. That's more than enough to get a reasonable pool of beta testers. By the time it gets out of beta, the Android release distribution will probably look quite different.
ashamedlion 15y ago
I wonder if it would be feasible for them to put Chrome on the iPhone. Technically, Apple wouldn't be against it since it's using WebKit.
- davux 15y ago
  I don't believe the iOS sandboxing would allow for V8, though. Isn't this the same problem as "my third party app WebView is slow because it doesn't support Javascript JIT"?
  - pvarangot 15y ago
    You are right, it wont allow V8. The only app allowed to JIT on iOS 4.3+ is Safari (before 4.3 not even Safari was allowed to modify it's own code). It is technically part of the Mandatory Code Signing trusted computing implementation of iOS more than of the Sandbox. They use the dirty bit normally used to do Copy on Write to re-verify signatures when dirty executable memory is paged in.
- gcp 15y ago
  The app store rules talk about "built-in Webkit". Judging from the size, there's a good chance Chrome for Android bundles its own WebKit version. It's similar in size to Firefox, which obviously has to bundle its own Gecko rendering engine.
potomak 15y ago
A x-post by Google: http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=3562814 http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=3562814
SandB0x 15y ago
So what have we been using up till now on Android? Is this just a re-branding and overhaul of the Android WebKit browser?
- cleverjake 15y ago
  No. We have been using a webkit mobile browser. This appears to be a separate code base.
- pvarangot 15y ago
  We've been user "Browser", I hope one advantage of using Chrome would be bookmark sync with my desktop browser. "Browser" doesn't even have folders for it's bookmarks. Anyway, my phone only runs Android 2.3 so it seems I'll have to wait till my next upgrade to avoid using hacked up apps to sync my bookmarks.
  - ditoa 15y ago
    "Browser" on Android 4 syncs with Chrome already (and has folder support).
    - fpgeek 15y ago
      IIRC, Browser's sync is just bookmarks. Chrome for Android also syncs open tabs and autocomplete suggestions from the desktop, bringing closer to Firefox Sync.
- papalalu 15y ago
  well i've been using dolphin hd
  - jonursenbach 15y ago
    Dolphin HD is just a reskinned version of the stock WebKit view that comes on every Android device/OS.
voidfiles 15y ago
Wow, if they include extensions. This could be huge.
- wslh 15y ago
  Yes, having extensions in a mobile browser is the next step to quick personalization beyond native applications. I bet that web augmentation on mobiles can be really huge.
  - bzbarsky 15y ago
    You may want to try out Firefox Mobile!
- aderaynal 15y ago
  what makes you think they will ?
  - nickpresta 15y ago
    Firefox Mobile Nightly releases for Android already include "extensions". Here are some examples: http://people.mozilla.com/~mfinkle/addons/ http://people.mozilla.com/~mfinkle/addons/
    - wavephorm 15y ago
      Nobody uses Firefox Mobile.
      - shmerl 15y ago
        Any factual statistics for that?
        wavephorm 15y ago
        I've never seen any chart or graph where Firefox Mobile even shows up. Usually when something has <1% marketshare it gets categorized as statistically insignificant or grouped in "other". http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201101-201201 http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201101-... http://www.netmarketshare.com/mobile-market-share http://www.netmarketshare.com/mobile-market-share
adamrights 15y ago
Firefox for android unfortunately started out real slow...might be a good move for Google. Time to go to xda-developers and see if it'll be on your phone.
- shmerl 15y ago
  Firefox moved to native UI on Android, which made it faster. The minus is obviously need for add-on developers to work with native UI too.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
sunsu 15y ago
All I want to know is how long till it replaces the current implementation of WebView in the Android SDK.
trotsky 15y ago
Decoupling the browser from the OS is one of the best things that could happen for android security going forward. While it won't help people who can't get upgrades to ICS, at least it will solve the future problems of people who get stuck on 4.x while their OS browser slowly becomes more and more exploitable. I have one phone that is still on 2.2 - it is trivially easy to own the phone with a little bit of javascript on any web page.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  I'm hoping this means it will get updates every 6 weeks, too.
  - Achshar 15y ago
    yes it will.. > There will be the same 6-week release cycle for new versions, Pinchai says. http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-the-browser-for-the-1 http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-th... but i would ask will they be automatic or manual?
    - nextparadigms 15y ago
      Probably automatic, like all their other apps on Android. But you should be able to easily turn that off just like with all the other apps in the Market.
      - ZeroGravitas 15y ago
        I think only the market is automatically updated, everything else is opt-in like 3rd party apps, but you can now set your default to be auto-update, unless permissions change.
- huggyface 15y ago
  Decoupling the browser from the OS is one of the best things that could happen for android security going forward. Decoupling everything but the most rudimentary services is the best way forward for both security and user satisfaction. Despite the laser focus on the underlying operating system version by so many, tens of millions of Android users, across makes, models, and carriers, are seeing endless updates of mapping and navigation, the search functionality, the mail applications, the Android market, and so on. Decoupling the browser adds it into the bin of "no longer need to care about the underlying OS much", and goes a long way to make the fragmentation issue a non-issue.
loudmax 15y ago
I had been wondering whether Google would port Chrome to Android, or they would port Dalvik to Chrome. I'm still not ruling out the latter option.
- khuey 15y ago
  What does "porting Dalvik to Chrome" even mean? Assuming that means "be able to run Dalvik bytecode in the browser", that doesn't help with all the Android APIs and such, so it's hard to see how it would be useful.
  - nl 15y ago
    What does "porting Dalvik to Chrome" even mean? Perhaps it means porting the Dalvik VM to ChromeOS. I've wondered the same thing, since putting an Android layer on ChromeOS seems to be technically viable (if non-trivial).
dangrossman 15y ago
With Android 4.0 at 1% market share, it'll be a long time before most people can even try this. http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-ve...
- oflannabhra 15y ago
  Yeah, while I'm generally excited about this, I won't be able to use it anytime soon, unfortunately.
  - vertr 15y ago
    Root and install a 4.0 rom!
    - ImprovedSilence 15y ago
      Have any good ROM suggestions? I'm looking for one somebody with first hand use of it can sell me on.
      - vertr 15y ago
        It is very phone specific for ICS right now. When Cyanogen 9 comes out there will be more 'standardization.' For now, I'd look up the dev forum for your phone on xda-developers and see if there are any good options.
      - dermatthias 15y ago
        Definitely CynanogenMod. Probably (I haven't checked them all) the most complete and best testet Rom out there. Available for nearly every major Android hardware.
      - dmbass 15y ago
        If you have a Droid X and can live without the camera, EncounterICS is unbelievably good.
    - 15y ago
TechNewb 15y ago
Chrome for iOS please.
- shmerl 15y ago
  No luck. Just don't use iOS.
- fullmoon 15y ago
  Apple doesn't allow applications to provide their own runtimes: “3.3.2 An Application may not download or install executable code. Interpreted code may only be used in an Application if all scripts, code and interpreters are packaged in the Application and not downloaded. The only exception to the foregoing is scripts and code downloaded and run by Apple’s built-in WebKit framework.”
  - shmerl 15y ago
    That's not very precise. Legally, Apple doesn't allow to use iOS SDK, i.e. to build such applications. If you manage somehow to build it any other way (not using Apple's SDK), this restriction has no meaning, and while Apple could reject such kind of software from their app store, you could deploy it to alternatives, like Cydia, and still be legal, since you didn't violate any licenses. I.e. for browsers makers the concern is not that they'll be rejected from the app store, but that they can't even legally build them with the Apple's SDK.
    - ceejayoz 15y ago
      "The App Store guidelines only apply to the App Store", while a true statement, is a pretty useless one.
      - shmerl 15y ago
        The rule above is not from the App Store guidelines, but from the SDK license. I.e. even if you use alternative app store without restrictions (Cydia), but build a browser with Apple iOS SDK - it's still illegal, and that's why major browsers like Firefox wouldn't do it.
dochtman 15y ago
Too bad it's only available in "select countries", which certainly don't include the Netherlands... Probably just the US and Canada? Kind of old-fashioned.
- dasmoth 15y ago
  Just installed it in the UK. I'm guessing it's a localization issue. Although for a Beta, I don't see why they can't just offer everyone who's keen to try it the en-us version.
- bvdbijl 15y ago
  You can use https://market.android.com/details?id=com.notenking.mf https://market.android.com/details?id=com.notenking.mf if you're rooted, dan werkt het wel bij mij namelijk
dave1010uk 15y ago
Does anyone know if this is Open Source?
lucaspiller 15y ago
I'm guessing this shares code with Chromium, so will it be open source too? EDIT: Looks potential: http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-android.html http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-a... "With hardware-accelerated canvas, overflow scroll support, strong HTML5 video support, and new capabilities such as Indexed DB, WebWorkers and Web Sockets, Chrome for Android is a solid platform for developing web content on mobile devices."
- ConstantineXVI 15y ago
  No context; but there's at least an "android" folder in the build section for what it's worth http://git.chromium.org/gitweb/?p=chromium/chromium.git;a=tree;f=build/android;h=4d04c17df45edf1f2aafcc8663b253052096ec34;hb=refs/heads/trunk http://git.chromium.org/gitweb/?p=chromium/chromium.git;a=tr...
- lucaspiller 15y ago
  Woops, I pasted the wrong thing there: "Much of the code for Chrome for Android is already shared with Chromium and over the coming weeks, the Chromium team will be upstreaming many new components developed for Chrome for Android to Chromium, WebKit and other projects."
- estel 15y ago
  http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq.html http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq.html "Chrome for Android is derived from Chromium. Because of the ICS release timeframes, we haven’t started the open sourcing process until recently. New capabilities added for Chrome for Android will be open sourced in phases, by upstreaming components of it into Chromium, WebKit, and other projects, while maintaining the integrity of those projects."
nod 15y ago
I'm rather confused that Google seems to be aiming to fragment the browser market for its own platform. I already wasn't looking forward to supporting/testing both Browser and Firefox on Android... Is Google just this disorganized internally?
- loudmax 15y ago
  Chrome and the old Android browser are both based on WebKit. Google will almost certainly make Chrome the default browser for new editions of Android, and will likely push for it on IOS and Windows phone.
  - gcp 15y ago
    Given that IOS is already on WebKit, there's no fragmentation here. WebKit has a monopoly on mobile.
    - shmerl 15y ago
      And that's bad, since it promotes bad coding practices. Also, WebKit is far from being uniform, and differs from one flavor to another.
    - SquareWheel 15y ago
      The license doesn't allow a different browser on iOS unless it uses Apple's Webkit anyway. Opera Mini was a technical exception. Every other browser is Safari, just with a different chrome.
  - fpgeek 15y ago
    Unless you think Google can negotiate exceptions to Apple's and Microsoft's respective store rules (or, more impressively, convince them to change the rules), we're not going to see Chrome for iOS or Windows Phone anytime soon (if ever).
emehrkay 15y ago
I've been hearing that the browser in Android is kinda bad from a lot of web/js developers. I hope that this makes the situation more palatable. Even better is when they'll ship a version for Windows Phone and ios.
- fpgeek 15y ago
  I wouldn't hold my breath for Chrome on iOS or Windows Phone. In both cases, the app store rules ban key features of Chrome (like the V8 JavaScript engine). Google may well do something to address Windows Phone and/or iOS users, but it will probably be much closer to Firefox Home for iOS (which lets you explore your bookmarks, open tabs and history and then follow links in Mobile Safari) than it will be to Chrome for Android.
Kevin_Marks 15y ago
According to MG Siegler, Chrome is in the bizdev-required proprietary 'with Google' part of Android, not the Open Source part. http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-the-browser-for-the-1 http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-th... That means we're stuck with legacy browsers in existing Androids and in the non-Google-blessed world (Amazon Fire and the billion Chinese phones and tablets).
- magicalist 15y ago
  Interesting. The chromium blog post linked above mentions upstreaming a bunch of new components, so maybe it will be like the Chrome/Chromium situation? Here's hoping... http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-android.html http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-a...
- Sephr 15y ago
  Chromium for Android is going to be open source, and the only difference between desktop Chrome and Chromium is branding and nonfree codec support.
bad_user 15y ago
"This item cannot be installed in your device's country"
- paulirish 15y ago
  It's currently available in: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil Sundar, SVP of Chrome just said "We are working hard to bring this to more countries and should greatly expand within the next three months."
  - dchest 15y ago
    How hard it can be to tick a few checkboxes?
  - dochtman 15y ago
    Why in the world is this restricted? I live in the Netherlands, and I really don't get what's so hard about releasing here. Sure, we're a small market, so not as important, but still... Software is global, man!
    - dpifke 15y ago
      Software may be global, but patent licenses for things like codecs aren't.
      - nextparadigms 15y ago
        Why are they even bothering with h.264 anymore? Didn't they want to remove it from Chrome since like version 10? It's about time they start to aggressively push for WebM, if it's ready.
        fpgeek 15y ago
        It would be odd, at the very least, if the problem was H.264 licensing. "All" Android devices (dating back to the G1, I believe) ship with H.264. That doesn't mean there isn't some other licensing (or other legal) sticking point, though.
danielwarna 15y ago
It doesn't seem to be available in Finland, found a apk at XDA tho: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1485420 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1485420 Too bad, it instacrashes om my ICS GalaxyS
- sjs382 15y ago
  It insta-crashed for me too on my Samsung Fascinate with CM9. I cleared the app's data, its cache, uninstalled it and reinstalled it. It works like a dream now.
wavephorm 15y ago
I think is the death knell for ChromeOS. Android browser has always sucked, it was the primary reason I haven't bought an Android device. Google had the resources to make Chrome on Android a long time ago, so I presume they were dragging their feet in a "wait and see" approach for whether ChromeOS had any chance on its own.
- adamrmcd 15y ago
  I don't believe so, for both your statements :) First off, this took so long because Chrome was built using a "normal" devel framework (gcc, make, etc) with a few added tools (repo, gyp). The UX for Chrome is provided via OS-specific graphical APIs, like X.org, Cocoa, and Win32. Android uses a Java framework, which in turn contains the code that manages all rendering and UX, so not only did Chrome UX needed to be ported to Android's graphical API, but the entire build environment needed to be JDK compatible. I agree the Android browser is laughable compared to Chrome, and Chrome on Android is the future, but there were so many developmental problems that needed to be solved first before one could stick to the other. Regarding your ChromeOS comment, this has nothing to do with that as ChromeOS is designed to solve an entirely different problem. Many power-users (developers, technology bloggers, etc) seem to have a hate-on for ChromeOS because they're afraid it'll kill their venerable laptop. That will never happen. :) ChromeOS is designed to kill those netbooks and laptops where common-users (my wife, for example) only use them for browsing gmail, facebook, and a few forums. 95% of what these users do are web based, barring a few native apps, of which NaCL and other HTML5 technologies are aiming to solve.
  - fluidcruft 15y ago
    That's exactly the same market android tablets target. The market for ChromeOS is rapidly evaporating.
enoughalready 15y ago
This is exciting news. I just got the Galaxy Nexus, so the timing couldn't be any more perfect. It doesn't look like they allow extensions yet. :( Big win: You can remotely debug your web application via usb and adb. (Preferences -> Developer Tools -> Enable USB Web debugging.
trotsky 15y ago
Chrome is now available in Beta from Android Market, in select countries and languages for phones and tablets with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. What tablets have official ICS on them? Is ICS even fully tabletized? I thought they had said they were putting that off until Jelly Bean.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  I believe Transformer Prime and Xoom have it right now. Also the $79 Ainol Novo7 tablet. They never said they will put it off until JellyBean. The only semi-official rumor about JellyBean was that they post-poned some "major changes" that were coming to ICS initially.
- angryasian 15y ago
  Running CM9 / ICS on touchpad. ICS is fully tabletized, better than my ipad, on an alpha build full of bugs.
  - lostsock 15y ago
    I was hardly using my Touchpad before I put CM9 on it. Now it really is quite delightful to use. Really looking forward to hardware accelerated video though.
  - r00fus 15y ago
    Wow, that sounds great, can you tell me more?
- 51Cards 15y ago
  My ASUS Slider is supposed to be getting the update quite soon along with the Transformer. Last I read a couple weeks ago it was in final checks at Google.
- nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
  I've been running a build of CyanogenMod 9 on my Galaxy Tab 10, and I'm absolutely loving it. I really liked the tablet with honeycomb, but ICS has made it literally 10 times better and faster.
eco 15y ago
Trying it now. It's very slick. Neat little animations and effects all over. Pulling up tabs from my Desktop Chrome works great. All of my bookmarks show up. No extension support (yet?).
nickpresta 15y ago
Direct Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome The download is a hefty 16MB. Features: * Chrome-to-mobile, Sync bookmarks, history, settings, Auto sign-in * Bandwidth management (preload webpages) * Privacy settings * Developer tools: Tilt Scrolling, USB Web Debugging (debug web pages from Chrome Desktop via USB??) * Incognito mode * About screen: http://i.imgur.com/Ahr6t.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Ahr6t.jpg The homepage has a "sync" icon with all the tabs open on your desktop: http://i.imgur.com/6eadl.jpg http://i.imgur.com/6eadl.jpg It can be a little slow to sync pages between devices, but works much better than Chrome to Phone. Overall, Chrome Beta is a welcomed improvement.
- jonknee 15y ago
  > USB Web Debugging That will be great. Even better if iOS gains something similar--it's maddening to not have a real debugger.
  - rsynnott 15y ago
    See this thing: http://www.iwebinspector.com/ http://www.iwebinspector.com/
    - cromwellian 15y ago
      Simulator != real device
    - jonknee 15y ago
      I have it and it's handy, but the iOS simulator is not an emulator. It behaves differently, especially Mobile Safari. When it runs fine on the simulator and not on the device, iWebInspector doesn't help.
- bvdbijl 15y ago
  Instructions on how to use web debugging via USB: http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/debugging.html http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/debugging.html You can then access http://localhost:9222/ http://localhost:9222/ which shows a list of all pages currently open on your device, which link to a page on http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/ http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/ for example http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/static/16.0.912.75/devtools.html?host=localhost:9222&page=2 http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/static/16.0.912.... which in turn connects to a websocket on localhost like ws://localhost:9222/devtools/page/2 to debug your mobile browser!
ARolek 15y ago
Will this replace the browser that ships with Android in ICS, or will the user have to download Chrome?
- bryanlarsen 15y ago
  If I read what MG Siegler wrote correctly, it will eventually replace "Browser" on Google Android builds. People like Amazon who aren't paying Google for Android won't get it.
revorad 15y ago
Can anyone please confirm if this includes access to the Chrome Web Store? That could be huge for web apps.
- eco 15y ago
  If you visit the web store it says it isn't supported by this operating system.
  - revorad 15y ago
    Oh no! I hope they will open it up. Thanks anyway; I asked because I don't have an Android device but I do make web apps.
sern 15y ago
And in typical Google fashion, they have assumed that devices have an infinite amount of memory: https://imgur.com/zkh7C https://imgur.com/zkh7C (this is with the app in the background!)
- huggyface 15y ago
  Why bigot your statement with such a ridiculous lead-in? On my Gingerbread device the browser right now, in the background, is using 67.15MB. What does that demonstrate? Nothing, given that the RAM was available and web browsing is one of, if not the most, complex activities you can do.
  - sern 15y ago
    I should have qualified my statement by mentioning that the Chrome app process runs a couple of background services - this causes it to be killed for low memory after normal background processes (the actual behaviour is a little more complex than that, but that's the gist of it), which could potentially impact the performance of multitasking. The proper thing to do is to run background services in a separate process from the UI or whatever uses the most memory so that the latter can be evicted more quickly. I stand by my assertion that optimising for memory isn't a priority at Google. An Android engineer poignantly put it (sorry, can't remember who) when they bragged on G+ that Android 4.0.3 was the first time since Gingerbread that they'd run the OS on a <1G RAM device (namely Nexus S). Then again, as an actual embedded engineer (none of this gigs of RAM crap!), all I care about is memory usage...
    - sern 15y ago
      The comment I was referring to is under this G+ post: https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/intiB73Fjzg https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/intiB73F...
      - fpgeek 15y ago
        Given the context and the joking tone (complete with smiley), I think you're reading way too much into the comment. Given the devices ICS had been shipped on at the time, she could have just as easily said it was the first time in a year that they'd shipped Android on: - a single-core device - a device with a screen smaller than 4.5" - a device with less than 720p resolution - ...
jyunderwood 15y ago
I wonder if/when the "Browser" app will get the hardware-accelerated canvas support. Currently, some of the canvas apps I've tried on ICS run worse than on Gingerbread. However, those same apps run acceptable in this Chrome beta.
- justincormack 15y ago
  Never by the sound of it. It will be discontinued in favour of Chrome now.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
bvdbijl 15y ago
Just a note: the rendering in this app does not use Android's webkit! For example the rounded borders on ihackersnews.com are square! It seems that it doesn't use the namespaced -webkit-border-radius but only the normal border-radius Interesting
porterhaney 15y ago
Much like Facebook's S-1, Google is seeing a huge increase in mobile traffic but not strong way to monetize it via advertising. I'd wager the preview pane (and maybe even the browser itself) is a play to increase the interaction they get on mobile advertisements.
SlimHop 15y ago
Can anyone speak to whether or not Chrome for Android supports WebGL?
- paulirish 15y ago
  It doesn't support WebGL right now. Some more answers to questions like this at http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq.html http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq.html
  - jentulman 15y ago
    Just thought I'd try it. Nothing I've tried on chromeexperiments.com has worked using a galaxy nexus.
nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
My initial perception is that all the Chrome features are great, primarily the data syncing with my desktop browsers. But the rendering is flawed; it doesn't render like the standard Android browser, doesn't render like desktop Chrome, and doesn't seem to even render consistent to itself. For example, a few screenshots comparing the standard Browser view of this comment page and the way Chrome beta views it: Browser: http://db.tt/kv3xP1Mk http://db.tt/kv3xP1Mk Browser: http://db.tt/s7S6lCBN http://db.tt/s7S6lCBN Chrome beta: http://db.tt/p9YXoWJU http://db.tt/p9YXoWJU
- karl_nerd 15y ago
  Without testing, this particular issue looks like it could be handled with the viewport-tag and -webkit-text-size-adjust
- necubi 15y ago
  It's apparently a feature: "An issue that often pops up for mobile browsers is that text on the website may be too small to read properly. Where the Android Browser employs a text reflow algorithm to clarify the situation, Chrome for Android features a technique which we’ve called Font Boosting. It uses an algorithm to increase font sizes when necessary, aiming to make the text readable regardless of the zoom level." (from http://peter.sh/2012/02/bringing-google-chrome-to-android http://peter.sh/2012/02/bringing-google-chrome-to-android)
  - mikeryan 15y ago
    Wow - I honestly can't decide if thats a horrible idea or not. But I can guarantee there's a ton of UX/UI folks who are going to get pissed that that.
    - jamesgeck0 15y ago
      It makes unreadable text readable for the user without requiring action on their part. Why would UX people get pissed? Seems more likely that web developers are the ones who will be uset.
  - 15y ago
mikeytown2 15y ago
I wonder how chrome does speed wise when compared to opera mini. I'm currently using opera mini as its one of the fastest browsers for my phone; G1 running the superE rom.
condiment 15y ago
The blog post doesn't go into it, but I'm curious to know what the long-term implications of this release are for the built-in android browser and the android SDK's WebView and WebChromeClient. If this is indeed the first step towards decoupling the browser from the Android platform itself, I would expect to see continuing development of those aspects of the SDK to dwindle and die completely, leaving them in the dust feature-wise when compared to native apps, and putting the people who work on web-wrapper-apps at an even more serious disadvantage.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  That's a very good question indeed, especially since some seem to suggest that Google will eventually replace the stock browser with Chrome, and Chrome is proprietary.
- estel 15y ago
  The FAQ's been linked to a couple of times from here, and it vaguely says: Are you still working on the Android browser, or are you dropping support in favor of Chrome? Android Browser and Chrome for Android are both derived from Chromium and already share a lot of code. We will continue to evaluate where it makes sense to harmonize our efforts; for instance, Google now has just one port of WebKit to maintain.
lwhi 15y ago
It's a shame that this has only been released for Android 4.0. My hope is that use of Chrome for Android becomes commonplace. SVG support has been lacking in the Android stock browser in all releases up to Gingerbread - Android 4.0 (and 3.0) already have SVG support, earlier release could really benefit.
gcb 15y ago
A browser with that many permissions? what good is sandboxing and everything if the browser can access 100% of my device, including microphone? i'm thankful this is not available for my ancient, 11mo old, nexus one.
- Shank 15y ago
  Can we please stop with the hyper-generalization that is that each permission is being used for the app 100% of the time for everything? In almost every instance, one permission or another is required for some trivial task, and they add up quickly.
  - gcb 15y ago
    and for something like a browser, a silly bug will make my personal data ... heck even my mic vulnerable. android permission is only good if you make specialized apps and make them talk togheter. like it was the original intent with actions and intents. but i guess it didn't worked out ok.
klausa 15y ago
It appears to be significantly faster on JS front than stock Browser. Sunspider results: Stock - 3852.2ms Chrome - 3131.8ms (tested on HP Touchpad with CM9 A.06) edit: I was curious and redid it after rebooting: Stock - 2816.1ms Chrome - 2928.1ms (!) So it turns out it's faster on systems under load, but actually slightly slower on freshly booted one. Weird. In case anyone is interested in full benchmarks: Stock: http://u.42.pl/2HRq http://u.42.pl/2HRq Chrome: http://u.42.pl/2HRp http://u.42.pl/2HRp
- mikemaccana 15y ago
  Html5test.com scores? I've got a new android phone but it won't run chrome.
  - klausa 15y ago
    256+3 bonus on stock, 343+10 bonus on Chrome. I don't know how to paste which tests pass and which fail, is there any?
    - pbhjpbhj 15y ago
      Opera Mobile 11.5 is 286 + 8 fwiw. Dolphin Mini 216 + 0.
- curveship 15y ago
  On my Xoom with stock ICS 4.0.3, Chrome is on the whole dead even with the stock browser: Chrome - 2276.2ms +/- 1.0% Stock - 2288.9ms +/- 2.0% Here's a screenshot of the detailed breakdown: http://i.imgur.com/WA37A.png http://i.imgur.com/WA37A.png . The "FROM" column is Chrome, the "TO" column is stock. Some tests Chrome wins, some stock.
  - Steko 15y ago
    Anandtech did a Sunspider comparison with Chrome slightly trailing stock and both somewhat behind Firefox 10. Not really gamebreaking differences though. http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5517/43983.png http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5517/43983.png I use Firefox Home on iOS for the sync even though the JS is gimped in non-Safari webkit views. Sync is that killer.
karl_nerd 15y ago
"Swipe from the edge to switch tab" is beautiful :)
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  It's something I've been asking from Google for a while. They need to implement swipes and gestures like that throughout the OS, and get rid of the bottom buttons which I think are wasting space.
dave1010uk 15y ago
For those wondering what the differences between the stock Android ICS browser and Chrome 16 (which this is based on), Chrome has extra features such as: * WOFF fonts * Web workers * drag and drop (not sure if this would work in mobile) * file API * IndexedDB * form validation * CSS border images * SVG filters Desktop Chrome currently doesn't support touch events. I wonder if the Android port's touch events implementation will make it to the desktop. Source: http://caniuse.com/#compare=y&b1=chrome+16&b2=android+4 http://caniuse.com/#compare=y&b1=chrome+16&b2=androi...
its_so_on 15y ago
I never thought I would see the day that a BlackBerry can run Chrome. I still never think so, but I never thought so, too.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
pamelafox 15y ago
Since I use Phonegap for my Android apps, I've filed an issue requesting that the Chrome browser be usable in WebView somehow: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113088 http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113088 Click the star if that's something you'd like too. :)
- ConstantineXVI 15y ago
  Since it doesn't replace the base WebKit, you'd either have to require everyone install Chrome to use your app (not guaranteed), or bundle the entire runtime (adding ~10MB to your app). It's possible, but doesn't seem very practical unless there's a serious leap in performance or capabilities in Chrome vs the baked in WebKit. Far more likely we'll see Chromium replace Android's engine in a version or two.
rkon 15y ago
This is unusable on the Galaxy Nexus due to its mysterious tendency to make fonts microscopic for random sections of the page. Guess it never occured to anyone to test their flagship browser on their flagship phone? It doesn't even resize the page to fit the screen when you pinch zoom (which the stock browser does) Also, it has a persistent address/menu bar that takes up the top 10% of the screen, no doubt thanks to ICS' lack of a dedicated menu button. Once again, proof that removing said button was a pure stroke of idiocy.
- cma 15y ago
  Put the stock browser into fullscreen mode and you see the button was totally useless. You just scroll up a bit for the address/menu/tab buttons to show.
jgnatch 15y ago
It was about time!
jgnatch 15y ago
It was about time!
dahlia 15y ago
It reminds me of the truth that speed is the best user experience.
Shank 15y ago
Crashes on start on my HTC Incredible (4.0.3 via Evervolv), and on my Nook Color it can't load pages.
TwoBit 15y ago
The problem with FireFox on my (512 mb) phone is that the OS usually kills it when I switch to another app (even tiny apps like messaging), and it's a slow FireFox restart if I want to use it again. The OS doesn't do this with the stock browser.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
nextparadigms 15y ago
Does anyone know if it comes with the same tab sandboxing it has on the PC? They say it has the same security as Chrome for PC, but they don't specify this.
rplnt 15y ago
Would this have any benefit if I don't use chrome on my computer (and even if I was I probably wouldn't want all my tabs syncing to phone)? Because the ad left me with impression that syncing is its only feature.
ssn 15y ago
Why only "in selected countries"?
- afsina 15y ago
  missing i18n?
darklajid 15y ago
While I understand the appeal (and - being stuck on pre 4.0 anyway, not utterly relevant for me at this time): I really hope that this will stay an optional offer, with a simple browser being the default. Things like "When searching, your top search results are loaded in the background as you type so pages appear instantly." make me shudder in disgust. The 'inspired by WebOS' card stuff looks nice, but I won't be having more than 2-3 tabs open on my phone at any given time (tablets might be different here). A browser is a very central part of the user experience. I prefer it simple and stupid.
gavanwoolery 15y ago
EEeaagh...getting tired of the upbeat-catchy-music-with-stop-motion-video-and-smarmy-narrator product demos. Who started these? I think it was Apple, not sure though...

476 points by cleverjake 15y ago

This app is incompatible with your Nexus S. :(

Finally. If this can actually live up to the desktop experience, I hope we can finally bring an end to the app. Only available for ICS https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome

benologist 15y ago

Douche move making it require Ice Cream Sandwich while they don't require telcos to ship any of us upgrades.

bryne 15y ago
Do you really still think Google has any say in the whole carrier upgrade thing?
- benologist 15y ago
  You're right, it's not Google's fault that they're only armed with: a) the only operating system that really competes with iOS while everyone struggle to compete with the iPhone b) mountains of cash c) a factory full of smart people solving much harder problems It's much better to just abandon every single generation of Android and the hardware it shipped on!
steve-howard 15y ago
If Samsung didn't lock down the bootloader so fucking tight on my $500 phone I wouldn't have to care what the telco does.
- jsight 15y ago
  Which Samsung Android device has a locked bootloader?
  - nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
    Most of the non-Nexus phones technically have a locked bootloader, so that people can only run firmware signed by the carrier. In practice, there are ways of jailbreaking the vast majority of locked phones, but there are some people who don't want to void their warranty or don't want to use community ROMs.
    - jsight 15y ago
      AFAIK (and some google searching seems to confirm) the Galaxy SII does not have a locked bootloader. I believe that the original Galaxy S was also unlocked. So which Samsung Android devices have locked bootloaders? Motorola and HTC tend to lock their bootloaders more often (though this situation is improving).
  - steve-howard 15y ago
    I'm so sorry, I was incorrect. I briefly owned a Nexus S which had an unlocked bootloader. I currently own a Motorola Photon, and even though there are ways to flash the bootloader, doing so cripples 4g (I believe this is by design).
starwed 15y ago
Yeah, lets just go ahead and assume there are no technical reasons here...
thetrendycyborg 15y ago
It has canvas hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration is a new feature in Android 4. Hence, it is only available on ICS.
- gcp 15y ago
  They could have added fallbacks. HW graphics acceleration is also possible on pre-ICS Android, anyway.
angryasian 15y ago
probably more related more to a minimum hardware requirements.
apress 15y ago
It's using 4.0 APIs, according to Matt Seigler's story and interview with Google SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai: "Back to the bad news: some of the more advanced features of Chrome for Android require APIs found only in Ice Cream Sandwich, so the team made the call to make it only available for Android 4.0 and beyond. Again, this means only 1% of current Android users out there can actually get and use the browser right now." - http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-the-browser-for-the-1 http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-th...
- fpgeek 15y ago
  1% of Android users is still at least a couple million. That's more than enough to get a reasonable pool of beta testers. By the time it gets out of beta, the Android release distribution will probably look quite different.

ashamedlion 15y ago

I wonder if it would be feasible for them to put Chrome on the iPhone. Technically, Apple wouldn't be against it since it's using WebKit.

davux 15y ago
I don't believe the iOS sandboxing would allow for V8, though. Isn't this the same problem as "my third party app WebView is slow because it doesn't support Javascript JIT"?
- pvarangot 15y ago
  You are right, it wont allow V8. The only app allowed to JIT on iOS 4.3+ is Safari (before 4.3 not even Safari was allowed to modify it's own code). It is technically part of the Mandatory Code Signing trusted computing implementation of iOS more than of the Sandbox. They use the dirty bit normally used to do Copy on Write to re-verify signatures when dirty executable memory is paged in.
gcp 15y ago
The app store rules talk about "built-in Webkit". Judging from the size, there's a good chance Chrome for Android bundles its own WebKit version. It's similar in size to Firefox, which obviously has to bundle its own Gecko rendering engine.

potomak 15y ago

A x-post by Google: http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=3562814 http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=3562814

SandB0x 15y ago

So what have we been using up till now on Android? Is this just a re-branding and overhaul of the Android WebKit browser?

cleverjake 15y ago
No. We have been using a webkit mobile browser. This appears to be a separate code base.
pvarangot 15y ago
We've been user "Browser", I hope one advantage of using Chrome would be bookmark sync with my desktop browser. "Browser" doesn't even have folders for it's bookmarks. Anyway, my phone only runs Android 2.3 so it seems I'll have to wait till my next upgrade to avoid using hacked up apps to sync my bookmarks.
- ditoa 15y ago
  "Browser" on Android 4 syncs with Chrome already (and has folder support).
  - fpgeek 15y ago
    IIRC, Browser's sync is just bookmarks. Chrome for Android also syncs open tabs and autocomplete suggestions from the desktop, bringing closer to Firefox Sync.
papalalu 15y ago
well i've been using dolphin hd
- jonursenbach 15y ago
  Dolphin HD is just a reskinned version of the stock WebKit view that comes on every Android device/OS.

voidfiles 15y ago

Wow, if they include extensions. This could be huge.

wslh 15y ago
Yes, having extensions in a mobile browser is the next step to quick personalization beyond native applications. I bet that web augmentation on mobiles can be really huge.
- bzbarsky 15y ago
  You may want to try out Firefox Mobile!
aderaynal 15y ago
what makes you think they will ?
- nickpresta 15y ago
  Firefox Mobile Nightly releases for Android already include "extensions". Here are some examples: http://people.mozilla.com/~mfinkle/addons/ http://people.mozilla.com/~mfinkle/addons/
  - wavephorm 15y ago
    Nobody uses Firefox Mobile.
    - shmerl 15y ago
      Any factual statistics for that?
      - wavephorm 15y ago
        I've never seen any chart or graph where Firefox Mobile even shows up. Usually when something has <1% marketshare it gets categorized as statistically insignificant or grouped in "other". http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201101-201201 http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201101-... http://www.netmarketshare.com/mobile-market-share http://www.netmarketshare.com/mobile-market-share

adamrights 15y ago

Firefox for android unfortunately started out real slow...might be a good move for Google. Time to go to xda-developers and see if it'll be on your phone.

shmerl 15y ago
Firefox moved to native UI on Android, which made it faster. The minus is obviously need for add-on developers to work with native UI too.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

sunsu 15y ago

All I want to know is how long till it replaces the current implementation of WebView in the Android SDK.

trotsky 15y ago

Decoupling the browser from the OS is one of the best things that could happen for android security going forward. While it won't help people who can't get upgrades to ICS, at least it will solve the future problems of people who get stuck on 4.x while their OS browser slowly becomes more and more exploitable. I have one phone that is still on 2.2 - it is trivially easy to own the phone with a little bit of javascript on any web page.

nextparadigms 15y ago
I'm hoping this means it will get updates every 6 weeks, too.
- Achshar 15y ago
  yes it will.. > There will be the same 6-week release cycle for new versions, Pinchai says. http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-the-browser-for-the-1 http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-th... but i would ask will they be automatic or manual?
  - nextparadigms 15y ago
    Probably automatic, like all their other apps on Android. But you should be able to easily turn that off just like with all the other apps in the Market.
    - ZeroGravitas 15y ago
      I think only the market is automatically updated, everything else is opt-in like 3rd party apps, but you can now set your default to be auto-update, unless permissions change.
huggyface 15y ago
Decoupling the browser from the OS is one of the best things that could happen for android security going forward. Decoupling everything but the most rudimentary services is the best way forward for both security and user satisfaction. Despite the laser focus on the underlying operating system version by so many, tens of millions of Android users, across makes, models, and carriers, are seeing endless updates of mapping and navigation, the search functionality, the mail applications, the Android market, and so on. Decoupling the browser adds it into the bin of "no longer need to care about the underlying OS much", and goes a long way to make the fragmentation issue a non-issue.

loudmax 15y ago

I had been wondering whether Google would port Chrome to Android, or they would port Dalvik to Chrome. I'm still not ruling out the latter option.

khuey 15y ago
What does "porting Dalvik to Chrome" even mean? Assuming that means "be able to run Dalvik bytecode in the browser", that doesn't help with all the Android APIs and such, so it's hard to see how it would be useful.
- nl 15y ago
  What does "porting Dalvik to Chrome" even mean? Perhaps it means porting the Dalvik VM to ChromeOS. I've wondered the same thing, since putting an Android layer on ChromeOS seems to be technically viable (if non-trivial).

dangrossman 15y ago

With Android 4.0 at 1% market share, it'll be a long time before most people can even try this. http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-ve...

oflannabhra 15y ago
Yeah, while I'm generally excited about this, I won't be able to use it anytime soon, unfortunately.
- vertr 15y ago
  Root and install a 4.0 rom!
  - ImprovedSilence 15y ago
    Have any good ROM suggestions? I'm looking for one somebody with first hand use of it can sell me on.
    - vertr 15y ago
      It is very phone specific for ICS right now. When Cyanogen 9 comes out there will be more 'standardization.' For now, I'd look up the dev forum for your phone on xda-developers and see if there are any good options.
    - dermatthias 15y ago
      Definitely CynanogenMod. Probably (I haven't checked them all) the most complete and best testet Rom out there. Available for nearly every major Android hardware.
    - dmbass 15y ago
      If you have a Droid X and can live without the camera, EncounterICS is unbelievably good.
  - 15y ago

TechNewb 15y ago

Chrome for iOS please.

shmerl 15y ago
No luck. Just don't use iOS.
fullmoon 15y ago
Apple doesn't allow applications to provide their own runtimes: “3.3.2 An Application may not download or install executable code. Interpreted code may only be used in an Application if all scripts, code and interpreters are packaged in the Application and not downloaded. The only exception to the foregoing is scripts and code downloaded and run by Apple’s built-in WebKit framework.”
- shmerl 15y ago
  That's not very precise. Legally, Apple doesn't allow to use iOS SDK, i.e. to build such applications. If you manage somehow to build it any other way (not using Apple's SDK), this restriction has no meaning, and while Apple could reject such kind of software from their app store, you could deploy it to alternatives, like Cydia, and still be legal, since you didn't violate any licenses. I.e. for browsers makers the concern is not that they'll be rejected from the app store, but that they can't even legally build them with the Apple's SDK.
  - ceejayoz 15y ago
    "The App Store guidelines only apply to the App Store", while a true statement, is a pretty useless one.
    - shmerl 15y ago
      The rule above is not from the App Store guidelines, but from the SDK license. I.e. even if you use alternative app store without restrictions (Cydia), but build a browser with Apple iOS SDK - it's still illegal, and that's why major browsers like Firefox wouldn't do it.

dochtman 15y ago

Too bad it's only available in "select countries", which certainly don't include the Netherlands... Probably just the US and Canada? Kind of old-fashioned.

dasmoth 15y ago
Just installed it in the UK. I'm guessing it's a localization issue. Although for a Beta, I don't see why they can't just offer everyone who's keen to try it the en-us version.
bvdbijl 15y ago
You can use https://market.android.com/details?id=com.notenking.mf https://market.android.com/details?id=com.notenking.mf if you're rooted, dan werkt het wel bij mij namelijk

dave1010uk 15y ago

Does anyone know if this is Open Source?

lucaspiller 15y ago

I'm guessing this shares code with Chromium, so will it be open source too? EDIT: Looks potential: http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-android.html http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-a... "With hardware-accelerated canvas, overflow scroll support, strong HTML5 video support, and new capabilities such as Indexed DB, WebWorkers and Web Sockets, Chrome for Android is a solid platform for developing web content on mobile devices."

ConstantineXVI 15y ago
No context; but there's at least an "android" folder in the build section for what it's worth http://git.chromium.org/gitweb/?p=chromium/chromium.git;a=tree;f=build/android;h=4d04c17df45edf1f2aafcc8663b253052096ec34;hb=refs/heads/trunk http://git.chromium.org/gitweb/?p=chromium/chromium.git;a=tr...
lucaspiller 15y ago
Woops, I pasted the wrong thing there: "Much of the code for Chrome for Android is already shared with Chromium and over the coming weeks, the Chromium team will be upstreaming many new components developed for Chrome for Android to Chromium, WebKit and other projects."
estel 15y ago
http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq.html http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq.html "Chrome for Android is derived from Chromium. Because of the ICS release timeframes, we haven’t started the open sourcing process until recently. New capabilities added for Chrome for Android will be open sourced in phases, by upstreaming components of it into Chromium, WebKit, and other projects, while maintaining the integrity of those projects."

nod 15y ago

I'm rather confused that Google seems to be aiming to fragment the browser market for its own platform. I already wasn't looking forward to supporting/testing both Browser and Firefox on Android... Is Google just this disorganized internally?

loudmax 15y ago
Chrome and the old Android browser are both based on WebKit. Google will almost certainly make Chrome the default browser for new editions of Android, and will likely push for it on IOS and Windows phone.
- gcp 15y ago
  Given that IOS is already on WebKit, there's no fragmentation here. WebKit has a monopoly on mobile.
  - shmerl 15y ago
    And that's bad, since it promotes bad coding practices. Also, WebKit is far from being uniform, and differs from one flavor to another.
  - SquareWheel 15y ago
    The license doesn't allow a different browser on iOS unless it uses Apple's Webkit anyway. Opera Mini was a technical exception. Every other browser is Safari, just with a different chrome.
- fpgeek 15y ago
  Unless you think Google can negotiate exceptions to Apple's and Microsoft's respective store rules (or, more impressively, convince them to change the rules), we're not going to see Chrome for iOS or Windows Phone anytime soon (if ever).

emehrkay 15y ago

I've been hearing that the browser in Android is kinda bad from a lot of web/js developers. I hope that this makes the situation more palatable. Even better is when they'll ship a version for Windows Phone and ios.

fpgeek 15y ago
I wouldn't hold my breath for Chrome on iOS or Windows Phone. In both cases, the app store rules ban key features of Chrome (like the V8 JavaScript engine). Google may well do something to address Windows Phone and/or iOS users, but it will probably be much closer to Firefox Home for iOS (which lets you explore your bookmarks, open tabs and history and then follow links in Mobile Safari) than it will be to Chrome for Android.

Kevin_Marks 15y ago

According to MG Siegler, Chrome is in the bizdev-required proprietary 'with Google' part of Android, not the Open Source part. http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-the-browser-for-the-1 http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-th... That means we're stuck with legacy browsers in existing Androids and in the non-Google-blessed world (Amazon Fire and the billion Chinese phones and tablets).

magicalist 15y ago
Interesting. The chromium blog post linked above mentions upstreaming a bunch of new components, so maybe it will be like the Chrome/Chromium situation? Here's hoping... http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-android.html http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-a...
Sephr 15y ago
Chromium for Android is going to be open source, and the only difference between desktop Chrome and Chromium is branding and nonfree codec support.

bad_user 15y ago

"This item cannot be installed in your device's country"

paulirish 15y ago
It's currently available in: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil Sundar, SVP of Chrome just said "We are working hard to bring this to more countries and should greatly expand within the next three months."
- dchest 15y ago
  How hard it can be to tick a few checkboxes?
- dochtman 15y ago
  Why in the world is this restricted? I live in the Netherlands, and I really don't get what's so hard about releasing here. Sure, we're a small market, so not as important, but still... Software is global, man!
  - dpifke 15y ago
    Software may be global, but patent licenses for things like codecs aren't.
    - nextparadigms 15y ago
      Why are they even bothering with h.264 anymore? Didn't they want to remove it from Chrome since like version 10? It's about time they start to aggressively push for WebM, if it's ready.
      - fpgeek 15y ago
        It would be odd, at the very least, if the problem was H.264 licensing. "All" Android devices (dating back to the G1, I believe) ship with H.264. That doesn't mean there isn't some other licensing (or other legal) sticking point, though.

danielwarna 15y ago

It doesn't seem to be available in Finland, found a apk at XDA tho: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1485420 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1485420 Too bad, it instacrashes om my ICS GalaxyS

sjs382 15y ago
It insta-crashed for me too on my Samsung Fascinate with CM9. I cleared the app's data, its cache, uninstalled it and reinstalled it. It works like a dream now.

wavephorm 15y ago

I think is the death knell for ChromeOS. Android browser has always sucked, it was the primary reason I haven't bought an Android device. Google had the resources to make Chrome on Android a long time ago, so I presume they were dragging their feet in a "wait and see" approach for whether ChromeOS had any chance on its own.

adamrmcd 15y ago
I don't believe so, for both your statements :) First off, this took so long because Chrome was built using a "normal" devel framework (gcc, make, etc) with a few added tools (repo, gyp). The UX for Chrome is provided via OS-specific graphical APIs, like X.org, Cocoa, and Win32. Android uses a Java framework, which in turn contains the code that manages all rendering and UX, so not only did Chrome UX needed to be ported to Android's graphical API, but the entire build environment needed to be JDK compatible. I agree the Android browser is laughable compared to Chrome, and Chrome on Android is the future, but there were so many developmental problems that needed to be solved first before one could stick to the other. Regarding your ChromeOS comment, this has nothing to do with that as ChromeOS is designed to solve an entirely different problem. Many power-users (developers, technology bloggers, etc) seem to have a hate-on for ChromeOS because they're afraid it'll kill their venerable laptop. That will never happen. :) ChromeOS is designed to kill those netbooks and laptops where common-users (my wife, for example) only use them for browsing gmail, facebook, and a few forums. 95% of what these users do are web based, barring a few native apps, of which NaCL and other HTML5 technologies are aiming to solve.
- fluidcruft 15y ago
  That's exactly the same market android tablets target. The market for ChromeOS is rapidly evaporating.

enoughalready 15y ago

This is exciting news. I just got the Galaxy Nexus, so the timing couldn't be any more perfect. It doesn't look like they allow extensions yet. :( Big win: You can remotely debug your web application via usb and adb. (Preferences -> Developer Tools -> Enable USB Web debugging.

trotsky 15y ago

Chrome is now available in Beta from Android Market, in select countries and languages for phones and tablets with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. What tablets have official ICS on them? Is ICS even fully tabletized? I thought they had said they were putting that off until Jelly Bean.

nextparadigms 15y ago
I believe Transformer Prime and Xoom have it right now. Also the $79 Ainol Novo7 tablet. They never said they will put it off until JellyBean. The only semi-official rumor about JellyBean was that they post-poned some "major changes" that were coming to ICS initially.
angryasian 15y ago
Running CM9 / ICS on touchpad. ICS is fully tabletized, better than my ipad, on an alpha build full of bugs.
- lostsock 15y ago
  I was hardly using my Touchpad before I put CM9 on it. Now it really is quite delightful to use. Really looking forward to hardware accelerated video though.
- r00fus 15y ago
  Wow, that sounds great, can you tell me more?
51Cards 15y ago
My ASUS Slider is supposed to be getting the update quite soon along with the Transformer. Last I read a couple weeks ago it was in final checks at Google.
nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
I've been running a build of CyanogenMod 9 on my Galaxy Tab 10, and I'm absolutely loving it. I really liked the tablet with honeycomb, but ICS has made it literally 10 times better and faster.

eco 15y ago

Trying it now. It's very slick. Neat little animations and effects all over. Pulling up tabs from my Desktop Chrome works great. All of my bookmarks show up. No extension support (yet?).

nickpresta 15y ago

Direct Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome The download is a hefty 16MB. Features: * Chrome-to-mobile, Sync bookmarks, history, settings, Auto sign-in * Bandwidth management (preload webpages) * Privacy settings * Developer tools: Tilt Scrolling, USB Web Debugging (debug web pages from Chrome Desktop via USB??) * Incognito mode * About screen: http://i.imgur.com/Ahr6t.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Ahr6t.jpg The homepage has a "sync" icon with all the tabs open on your desktop: http://i.imgur.com/6eadl.jpg http://i.imgur.com/6eadl.jpg It can be a little slow to sync pages between devices, but works much better than Chrome to Phone. Overall, Chrome Beta is a welcomed improvement.

jonknee 15y ago
> USB Web Debugging That will be great. Even better if iOS gains something similar--it's maddening to not have a real debugger.
- rsynnott 15y ago
  See this thing: http://www.iwebinspector.com/ http://www.iwebinspector.com/
  - cromwellian 15y ago
    Simulator != real device
  - jonknee 15y ago
    I have it and it's handy, but the iOS simulator is not an emulator. It behaves differently, especially Mobile Safari. When it runs fine on the simulator and not on the device, iWebInspector doesn't help.
bvdbijl 15y ago
Instructions on how to use web debugging via USB: http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/debugging.html http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/debugging.html You can then access http://localhost:9222/ http://localhost:9222/ which shows a list of all pages currently open on your device, which link to a page on http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/ http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/ for example http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/static/16.0.912.75/devtools.html?host=localhost:9222&page=2 http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/static/16.0.912.... which in turn connects to a websocket on localhost like ws://localhost:9222/devtools/page/2 to debug your mobile browser!

ARolek 15y ago

Will this replace the browser that ships with Android in ICS, or will the user have to download Chrome?

bryanlarsen 15y ago
If I read what MG Siegler wrote correctly, it will eventually replace "Browser" on Google Android builds. People like Amazon who aren't paying Google for Android won't get it.

revorad 15y ago

Can anyone please confirm if this includes access to the Chrome Web Store? That could be huge for web apps.

eco 15y ago
If you visit the web store it says it isn't supported by this operating system.
- revorad 15y ago
  Oh no! I hope they will open it up. Thanks anyway; I asked because I don't have an Android device but I do make web apps.

sern 15y ago

And in typical Google fashion, they have assumed that devices have an infinite amount of memory: https://imgur.com/zkh7C https://imgur.com/zkh7C (this is with the app in the background!)

huggyface 15y ago
Why bigot your statement with such a ridiculous lead-in? On my Gingerbread device the browser right now, in the background, is using 67.15MB. What does that demonstrate? Nothing, given that the RAM was available and web browsing is one of, if not the most, complex activities you can do.
- sern 15y ago
  I should have qualified my statement by mentioning that the Chrome app process runs a couple of background services - this causes it to be killed for low memory after normal background processes (the actual behaviour is a little more complex than that, but that's the gist of it), which could potentially impact the performance of multitasking. The proper thing to do is to run background services in a separate process from the UI or whatever uses the most memory so that the latter can be evicted more quickly. I stand by my assertion that optimising for memory isn't a priority at Google. An Android engineer poignantly put it (sorry, can't remember who) when they bragged on G+ that Android 4.0.3 was the first time since Gingerbread that they'd run the OS on a <1G RAM device (namely Nexus S). Then again, as an actual embedded engineer (none of this gigs of RAM crap!), all I care about is memory usage...
  - sern 15y ago
    The comment I was referring to is under this G+ post: https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/intiB73Fjzg https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/intiB73F...
    - fpgeek 15y ago
      Given the context and the joking tone (complete with smiley), I think you're reading way too much into the comment. Given the devices ICS had been shipped on at the time, she could have just as easily said it was the first time in a year that they'd shipped Android on: - a single-core device - a device with a screen smaller than 4.5" - a device with less than 720p resolution - ...

jyunderwood 15y ago

I wonder if/when the "Browser" app will get the hardware-accelerated canvas support. Currently, some of the canvas apps I've tried on ICS run worse than on Gingerbread. However, those same apps run acceptable in this Chrome beta.

justincormack 15y ago
Never by the sound of it. It will be discontinued in favour of Chrome now.

deleted 15y ago

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bvdbijl 15y ago

Just a note: the rendering in this app does not use Android's webkit! For example the rounded borders on ihackersnews.com are square! It seems that it doesn't use the namespaced -webkit-border-radius but only the normal border-radius Interesting

porterhaney 15y ago

Much like Facebook's S-1, Google is seeing a huge increase in mobile traffic but not strong way to monetize it via advertising. I'd wager the preview pane (and maybe even the browser itself) is a play to increase the interaction they get on mobile advertisements.

SlimHop 15y ago

Can anyone speak to whether or not Chrome for Android supports WebGL?

paulirish 15y ago
It doesn't support WebGL right now. Some more answers to questions like this at http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq.html http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq.html
- jentulman 15y ago
  Just thought I'd try it. Nothing I've tried on chromeexperiments.com has worked using a galaxy nexus.

nuclear_eclipse 15y ago

My initial perception is that all the Chrome features are great, primarily the data syncing with my desktop browsers. But the rendering is flawed; it doesn't render like the standard Android browser, doesn't render like desktop Chrome, and doesn't seem to even render consistent to itself. For example, a few screenshots comparing the standard Browser view of this comment page and the way Chrome beta views it: Browser: http://db.tt/kv3xP1Mk http://db.tt/kv3xP1Mk Browser: http://db.tt/s7S6lCBN http://db.tt/s7S6lCBN Chrome beta: http://db.tt/p9YXoWJU http://db.tt/p9YXoWJU

karl_nerd 15y ago
Without testing, this particular issue looks like it could be handled with the viewport-tag and -webkit-text-size-adjust
necubi 15y ago
It's apparently a feature: "An issue that often pops up for mobile browsers is that text on the website may be too small to read properly. Where the Android Browser employs a text reflow algorithm to clarify the situation, Chrome for Android features a technique which we’ve called Font Boosting. It uses an algorithm to increase font sizes when necessary, aiming to make the text readable regardless of the zoom level." (from http://peter.sh/2012/02/bringing-google-chrome-to-android http://peter.sh/2012/02/bringing-google-chrome-to-android)
- mikeryan 15y ago
  Wow - I honestly can't decide if thats a horrible idea or not. But I can guarantee there's a ton of UX/UI folks who are going to get pissed that that.
  - jamesgeck0 15y ago
    It makes unreadable text readable for the user without requiring action on their part. Why would UX people get pissed? Seems more likely that web developers are the ones who will be uset.
- 15y ago

mikeytown2 15y ago

I wonder how chrome does speed wise when compared to opera mini. I'm currently using opera mini as its one of the fastest browsers for my phone; G1 running the superE rom.

condiment 15y ago

The blog post doesn't go into it, but I'm curious to know what the long-term implications of this release are for the built-in android browser and the android SDK's WebView and WebChromeClient. If this is indeed the first step towards decoupling the browser from the Android platform itself, I would expect to see continuing development of those aspects of the SDK to dwindle and die completely, leaving them in the dust feature-wise when compared to native apps, and putting the people who work on web-wrapper-apps at an even more serious disadvantage.

nextparadigms 15y ago
That's a very good question indeed, especially since some seem to suggest that Google will eventually replace the stock browser with Chrome, and Chrome is proprietary.
estel 15y ago
The FAQ's been linked to a couple of times from here, and it vaguely says: Are you still working on the Android browser, or are you dropping support in favor of Chrome? Android Browser and Chrome for Android are both derived from Chromium and already share a lot of code. We will continue to evaluate where it makes sense to harmonize our efforts; for instance, Google now has just one port of WebKit to maintain.

lwhi 15y ago

It's a shame that this has only been released for Android 4.0. My hope is that use of Chrome for Android becomes commonplace. SVG support has been lacking in the Android stock browser in all releases up to Gingerbread - Android 4.0 (and 3.0) already have SVG support, earlier release could really benefit.

gcb 15y ago

A browser with that many permissions? what good is sandboxing and everything if the browser can access 100% of my device, including microphone? i'm thankful this is not available for my ancient, 11mo old, nexus one.

Shank 15y ago
Can we please stop with the hyper-generalization that is that each permission is being used for the app 100% of the time for everything? In almost every instance, one permission or another is required for some trivial task, and they add up quickly.
- gcb 15y ago
  and for something like a browser, a silly bug will make my personal data ... heck even my mic vulnerable. android permission is only good if you make specialized apps and make them talk togheter. like it was the original intent with actions and intents. but i guess it didn't worked out ok.

klausa 15y ago

It appears to be significantly faster on JS front than stock Browser. Sunspider results: Stock - 3852.2ms Chrome - 3131.8ms (tested on HP Touchpad with CM9 A.06) edit: I was curious and redid it after rebooting: Stock - 2816.1ms Chrome - 2928.1ms (!) So it turns out it's faster on systems under load, but actually slightly slower on freshly booted one. Weird. In case anyone is interested in full benchmarks: Stock: http://u.42.pl/2HRq http://u.42.pl/2HRq Chrome: http://u.42.pl/2HRp http://u.42.pl/2HRp

mikemaccana 15y ago
Html5test.com scores? I've got a new android phone but it won't run chrome.
- klausa 15y ago
  256+3 bonus on stock, 343+10 bonus on Chrome. I don't know how to paste which tests pass and which fail, is there any?
  - pbhjpbhj 15y ago
    Opera Mobile 11.5 is 286 + 8 fwiw. Dolphin Mini 216 + 0.
curveship 15y ago
On my Xoom with stock ICS 4.0.3, Chrome is on the whole dead even with the stock browser: Chrome - 2276.2ms +/- 1.0% Stock - 2288.9ms +/- 2.0% Here's a screenshot of the detailed breakdown: http://i.imgur.com/WA37A.png http://i.imgur.com/WA37A.png . The "FROM" column is Chrome, the "TO" column is stock. Some tests Chrome wins, some stock.
- Steko 15y ago
  Anandtech did a Sunspider comparison with Chrome slightly trailing stock and both somewhat behind Firefox 10. Not really gamebreaking differences though. http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5517/43983.png http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5517/43983.png I use Firefox Home on iOS for the sync even though the JS is gimped in non-Safari webkit views. Sync is that killer.

karl_nerd 15y ago

"Swipe from the edge to switch tab" is beautiful :)

nextparadigms 15y ago
It's something I've been asking from Google for a while. They need to implement swipes and gestures like that throughout the OS, and get rid of the bottom buttons which I think are wasting space.

dave1010uk 15y ago

For those wondering what the differences between the stock Android ICS browser and Chrome 16 (which this is based on), Chrome has extra features such as: * WOFF fonts * Web workers * drag and drop (not sure if this would work in mobile) * file API * IndexedDB * form validation * CSS border images * SVG filters Desktop Chrome currently doesn't support touch events. I wonder if the Android port's touch events implementation will make it to the desktop. Source: http://caniuse.com/#compare=y&b1=chrome+16&b2=android+4 http://caniuse.com/#compare=y&b1=chrome+16&b2=androi...

its_so_on 15y ago

I never thought I would see the day that a BlackBerry can run Chrome. I still never think so, but I never thought so, too.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

pamelafox 15y ago

Since I use Phonegap for my Android apps, I've filed an issue requesting that the Chrome browser be usable in WebView somehow: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113088 http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113088 Click the star if that's something you'd like too. :)

ConstantineXVI 15y ago
Since it doesn't replace the base WebKit, you'd either have to require everyone install Chrome to use your app (not guaranteed), or bundle the entire runtime (adding ~10MB to your app). It's possible, but doesn't seem very practical unless there's a serious leap in performance or capabilities in Chrome vs the baked in WebKit. Far more likely we'll see Chromium replace Android's engine in a version or two.

rkon 15y ago

This is unusable on the Galaxy Nexus due to its mysterious tendency to make fonts microscopic for random sections of the page. Guess it never occured to anyone to test their flagship browser on their flagship phone? It doesn't even resize the page to fit the screen when you pinch zoom (which the stock browser does) Also, it has a persistent address/menu bar that takes up the top 10% of the screen, no doubt thanks to ICS' lack of a dedicated menu button. Once again, proof that removing said button was a pure stroke of idiocy.

cma 15y ago
Put the stock browser into fullscreen mode and you see the button was totally useless. You just scroll up a bit for the address/menu/tab buttons to show.

jgnatch 15y ago

It was about time!

jgnatch 15y ago

It was about time!

dahlia 15y ago

It reminds me of the truth that speed is the best user experience.

Shank 15y ago

Crashes on start on my HTC Incredible (4.0.3 via Evervolv), and on my Nook Color it can't load pages.

TwoBit 15y ago

The problem with FireFox on my (512 mb) phone is that the OS usually kills it when I switch to another app (even tiny apps like messaging), and it's a slow FireFox restart if I want to use it again. The OS doesn't do this with the stock browser.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

nextparadigms 15y ago

Does anyone know if it comes with the same tab sandboxing it has on the PC? They say it has the same security as Chrome for PC, but they don't specify this.

rplnt 15y ago

Would this have any benefit if I don't use chrome on my computer (and even if I was I probably wouldn't want all my tabs syncing to phone)? Because the ad left me with impression that syncing is its only feature.

ssn 15y ago

Why only "in selected countries"?

afsina 15y ago
missing i18n?

darklajid 15y ago

While I understand the appeal (and - being stuck on pre 4.0 anyway, not utterly relevant for me at this time): I really hope that this will stay an optional offer, with a simple browser being the default. Things like "When searching, your top search results are loaded in the background as you type so pages appear instantly." make me shudder in disgust. The 'inspired by WebOS' card stuff looks nice, but I won't be having more than 2-3 tabs open on my phone at any given time (tablets might be different here). A browser is a very central part of the user experience. I prefer it simple and stupid.

gavanwoolery 15y ago

EEeaagh...getting tired of the upbeat-catchy-music-with-stop-motion-video-and-smarmy-narrator product demos. Who started these? I think it was Apple, not sure though...