Newsletter
Chrome 56 on Android is out with new features and fixes for those that use the browser. While there isn’t a laundry list of changes to the application there are a handful of them and they should make the user experience a bit better. In this version of the app, which was released on desktop last Thursday, users will be open up a new tab page and if they long press on article suggestions then they’ll get an option to download them. This should make things quick and painless if you see a link to an article you want to download and store for later, and especially useful if you know you’ll be in an area without internet at some point but will want to access those pages while offline.
In addition to long pressing to download article suggestion links, the new tab page has another feature that was just added in this release. Downloads can be accessed from the new tab page, so users won’t have to go digging around in their app to find the downloads page, although if you want the full list you’ll likely still have to open the downloads page to sift through everything. Luckily if you find yourself in this position, the new tab page does have a “more” button that you can tap to get the full list of your downloads, so there’s still no need to go rooting around in the overflow menu to get to them. It’s also now possible to use various forms of information with a simple tap. If you open up a web page for example, and you see an email address or phone number that you want to use for contact, tapping on those will allow you to use them so you won’t be limited to copying and pasting.
As with every new release it seems, there are some performance improvements and fixes that are part of this update as well, and although these aren’t changes you can physically interact with like the features, you should notice them as they’re intended to afford you a smoother experience while browsing the web. These optimizations include faster rendering. The update should be heading out to all users starting from today, although it is stated that it will continue rolling out over the next week, so not all users will see the update immediately.