Google has just released a brand new update for its iOS Chrome app, With this update, Google is now using the WKWebView rendering engine, the same one that can be found in Apple’s own Safari browser. With the new rendering engine, Chrome for iOS is now a lot faster, and, even better, according to Google’s own testing it crashes 70 percent less than it did in its previous version.
The biggest change is in stability: with WKWebView’s out-of-process rendering, when the web view crashes or runs out of memory, it won’t bring down all of Chrome with it. As a result, Chrome crashes 70% less with WKWebView. Even when counting the “Aw, Snap!” page shown when the renderer crashes, there’s still a big improvement.
Outside of stability, WKWebView brings many other benefits. Web compatibility is improved with support for features like IndexedDB, bringing the HTML5test score for Chrome on iOS from 391 up to 409. Switching to background tabs will cause pages to reload 25% less often. JavaScript speed on benchmarks such as Octane is an order of magnitude faster, and scrolling is smoother and more responsive.
In addition, this release of Chrome for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad should be faster overall, with JavaScript execution now “dramatically faster”.
For the web, Google also created a new extension called “Data Saver,” that will allow Chrome users the ability to manage data usage while outside of their home Wi-Fi. Similar in function to the extension available for Android devices, Data Saver reduces the data needed to access the web with the help of the company’s “compression technology.” The extension lets users see exactly how much data they saved and highlight which websites are using the most while out of the house.
You can download Chrome’s iOS app from the link below if you want to try it out.
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Google updates Chrome for iOS with Reducing Crashes by 70%