Introducing Chrome for Android

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | 9:43 AM

In 2008, we launched Google Chrome to help make the web better. We’re excited that millions of people around the world use Chrome as their primary browser and we want to keep improving that experience. Today, we're introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet. Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices.




Speed With Chrome for Android, you can search, navigate and browse fast—Chrome fast. You can scroll through web pages as quickly as you can flick your finger. When searching, your top search results are loaded in the background as you type so pages appear instantly. And of course, both search and navigation can all be done quickly from the Chrome omnibox.


Simplicity Chrome for Android is designed from the ground up for mobile devices. We reimagined tabs so they fit just as naturally on a small-screen phone as they do on a larger screen tablet. You can flip or swipe between an unlimited number of tabs using intuitive gestures, as if you’re holding a deck of cards in the palm of your hands, each one a new window to the web. One of the biggest pains of mobile browsing is selecting the correct link out of several on a small-screen device. Link Preview does away with hunting and pecking for links on a web page by automatically zooming in on links to make selecting the precise one easier. And as with Chrome on desktop, we built Chrome for Android with privacy in mind from the beginning, including incognito mode for private browsing and fine-grained privacy options (tap menu icon, ‘Settings,’ and then ‘Privacy’).


Sign in You can now bring your personalized Chrome experience with you to your Android phone or tablet. If you sign in to Chrome on your Android device, you can:

  • View open tabs: Access the tabs you left open on your computer (also signed into Chrome)—picking up exactly where you left off.
  • Get smarter suggestions: If you visit a site often on your computer, you'll also get an autocomplete suggestion for it on your mobile device, so you can spend less time typing.
  • Sync bookmarks: Conveniently access your favorite sites no matter where you are or which device you’re using.
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. We’re eager to hear your feedback. Finally, we look forward to working closely with the developer community to create a better web on a platform that defines mobile.




(Cross-posted from the Chrome blog and the Official Google blog)

57 comments:

Yobif said...

Wow.. Its great news

regards
Yobif

Glenn said...

Does it support WebGL?

KENNECTED said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

KENNECTED said...

Too bad this is only for devices that run on ICS. This means Google needs to get on Manufacturers/Carriers about updating devices ASAP!

At this very moment *very few* people can take advantage of this app!

Happy to have the app, but disappointed I cannot use it.

FireFly said...

Would love to try it but ofcourse it's not available in the market here, even on a Galaxy Nexus... Can anyone share the apk?

Michael Krause said...

No support for my Droid 2 Global. :(

Gabe said...

"in select countries" - which ones? Why not others?

dhampik said...

Not available in Russia? Why?

Unknown said...

Beta... So there's a chance it'll be ported to older releases like Android 2.1?...

This and more questions should be answered.

I'll be patient

Pete said...

Now if my Google Nexus S 4G would just get the damn update.

eehans said...

Why is it not available in Estonia? I would love to try it.

Spindel said...

Windows Phone, please? :)

Paleogirl2003 said...

Love it, so fast!

Shannon Van Curen said...

Any plans for iOS?

David Mulder said...

UNBELIEVABLE !! After first designing such "good" android design guidelines, you fail to even apply them in one of your own flagship products. Seriously, I was sincerely hoping that slowly android apps would start looking more unified... but if you don't set a good example yourself, why in the world would others follow?

SwitchBL8 said...

I can understand selected phones/Android versions, but why selected countries? Just release the English/US version for all the selected phones/tablets. Period. What has country to do with a beta?

jb said...

I can't believe this is only for Android 4.0 ICS when Gingerbread has a massive marketshare majority over ICS. Almost seems like a sales ploy to get more into Android 4.0 devices since majority of people use Chrome on desktops now.
Very surprised this has so little OS support.
What a bummer!

Mike Allred said...

Wow, great surprise today! Working great and fast!! (Nexus S) Thanks Google, you rock!

Pixel Buffer said...

Unfortunately, it FC's on me when I try and start it. It says, "Unfortunately, Chrome beta has stopped."

Android 4.0.4 (Cyanogen Mod 9 Alpha build 15 by teamhacksung) on Samsung Captivate

Kajal Kumar's Cartoons काजल कुमार के कार्टून said...

Why not for Android versions other than Ice Cream Sandwich or when ?

Unknown said...

Please please consider making this available for iPad.

circle said...

I love that, but why only available in US :(

Tried by downloading apk (do it with your own risk :p), nice and just work fine, got incognito tabs, even chrome://chrome-urls work. but where is history?

Chris said...

Why the hell is it not available for Galaxy Nexus users from other countries!? What law stops that!?

Jessica said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Jessica said...

Nice blog , it will help more people , I also wrote a blog about iphone games and would like you to read it , thanks

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SwitchBL8 said...

The APK install (search for it, XDA developers) works great, even in The Netherlands....

juanchosierrar said...

I've been testing, previously used Dolphin goes well, the chrome has great speed and some things we can synchronize our PC with the phone. excellent;)

jhon apps said...

hey,
can i post some information from this to my below blog related google update ?

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dave said...

so what? how many people have ice cream sandwich? I just bought a new phone, it's 4g lte but no ics..

Anonymous said...

Is there a Chrome browser coming to iOS?

aharis said...

It would be nice to call out that its only available for ice cream sandwich.
Plus its not very easy to find in the Android Market.

Lori said...

Got it. Love it!

Unknown said...

http://apps-zone.net/forum/forum.php
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Unknown said...

wowww.......
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Scott Levy said...

Fantastic post. Here’s a tool that lets your create location-based applications such as Distance Search, Map Mashups, and Automatic Geocoding without coding http://blog.caspio.com/web_apps/create-location-based-applications-with-caspio/

Sid.Legend said...

Yesssss..!!!! Lovely project by google...!! kudos to all the developers..!! awesomee..!! i hope the gingerbread version comes out soon..!! or the ICS update for my phone..!! :))))

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Anonymous said...

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Game World said...

great app. having more fun with my adriod. thanks google

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Unknown said...

Mental Google .. why u not release chrome for other android version.

iPoemStar said...

Um...sounds great but as I am typing this comment from a honeycomb tablet an testing on my gingerbread phone an being well aware that there are less then 15 ics products, this sucks!

Jackie said...

Excellent post, sounds great for Monster Headphones

Unknown said...

That is fantastic news for GHD Hair Straightener

GK said...

Thats a great news..
we know chrome is the best
Please make it available for symbian-3 devices also..
Thank you Google Team

DuffyBloo said...

seems appealing, keep updating your posts as I found it a good help.
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Ham said...

Come to Froyo!!! Opera Mini sucks

Motorola Motoluxe Deals said...

Great news which is going to be very helpful..thanx for sharing..

Amelia Shi said...

Wow!!! Excelence!! juegos de mario

Greg said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Greg said...

Regular Chrome has Flash embedded, but Chrome for ICS does not support Flash. HTML-compliant sites notwithstanding, WTF?

girls for you said...

Google chrome browser for android beta its very exciting about all user of android.I also.
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Cambay Hotels & Resorts said...

Google chrome browser for android beta its very exciting about all user of android.
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Mayank Sharma said...

google, please release chrome for gingerbread. becausez if you do, we don't need to switch browsers for different purposes(like i use opera for browsing and maxthon if i have to deal with flash websites). I believe chrome would be a complete package for me, and many others...

alcan peter said...

I think in the updated android OS-ICS the chrome would be worked faster than others. I see the footage and really it shows impressive performance of chrome.
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Damien said...

it doesn't make sense to me why google didn't release chrome for gingerbread. gingerbread runs on most android devices. with many manufacturers taking their time with releasing ics updates I can't understand why we (gingerbread) uses have to wait so long to get a taste of chrome for android. sucks.

Santanu Gupta said...

please make chrome for android available for ALCATEL 890D onetouch

Sharon Edrote said...

Fast and reliable app for android. Easy to use and friendly application. Kudos Mobile Dev.