Chrome for Android updates: recognizes app links, boosts speed

Google slipped a bit of an upgrade into the Android Market today. The mobile version of Chrome received a seemingly minor version bump and, much to our chagrin, left no changelog behind for us to peruse. Most of the tweaks are under the hood and, in our unscientific testing, pages appeared to load much faster and the interface was more responsive. Our immediate impressions were backed up by benchmarks -- the updated version of Chrome scored a 1,846.8 on SunSpider. The most welcome addition, though, was the ability to recognize links associated with applications. For example, the initial release never offered us the opportunity to open search results in the Google Maps app, it went straight to the mobile site. That quirk hasn't been fixed completely, as YouTube vids still stream inline with no immediately apparent option to launch them in the app. Still, it's nice to see Google improving integration with the OS and working towards making Chrome an acceptable replacement for the default browser.

Update: Some of you out there are reporting that the upgrade has broken the browser for rooted devices and custom ROMs. While that limitation doesn't appear to be affecting our Nexus, we've gotten enough response to believe this is a legitimate issue. So, update at your own peril.

Update 2: Alas, a changelog is here! You'll find it at the more coverage link. One new feature we missed was support for Android Beam, but, with no other Nexuses around, we haven't been able to test it.

Chrome for Android updates: recognizes app links, boosts speed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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