Google Chrome Beta Channel Lands For Android

Google chrome has introduced Chrome Beta Channel for Android. Google’s desktop browser, Chrome on Mac Windows, Linux and Chrome OS already has early access channels to new builds and now it’s going mobile. You can download this new Beta Channel from Google Play Store, compatible with all Android 4.0+ devices. Google Explains it as:

The Beta channel was launched in the early days of Chrome to test out new features and fix issues fast.

Google also stated that this Beta App will be updated in small intervals of time which will bring new features and Bugs as well. Now Chrome on Android also will get “the speed, security and other improvements” which were earlier restricted on Desktop versions only.

The first build is based on Chrome 25, and according to the Chrome Release blog, is sluggish and slow on the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, freezes often on some Qualcomm chipsets, and breaks some sites (among other things).

Here are some bugs:

• Performance is sluggish, noticeably on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S.
• Frequent freeze on devices with specific versions of Qualcomm GPU driver.
• Text autosizing may break formatting on some sites.
• 164632 – Editing bookmark feature is broken.
• 165244 – Text position handler jumps or disappears when moving.
• 163439 – Clicking on links in yahoo.com not navigating on Nexus 7.
• 166233 – Unable to submit comments on Facebook posts in desktop version of Facebook.
• 165244 – Text handler jumps or disappears when moving.
• 167351 – Youtube video controls are lost after returning from fullscreen video mode.
• 162486 – iframe scrolling broken.

Despite these bugs there are some improvements also, this beta update brings Octane performance benchmark on average by 25-30%.

Source: Chrome Blogspot

Download: Chrome Beta